Hellfire Period
by Zoram Selrof
Summary: Sequel to The Obscure Legion. It's barely been 2 weeks since the last confrontation with Neo Gospel's Obscure Legion yet they're not giving up so easily. This time their tactics turn smarter, attempts at undermining reputations happen, rumors spread, frustrations rise up... Everyone feels it: they're turning serious. One slight mistake and you can be a goner... Rated M for lemon.
1. Chapter 1: Miss Joke & Co

**Hellfire Period**

**By Zoram Selrof**

**Chapter 1: Miss Joke & Co.**

11:06 AM (Japan Time), Tuesday October the 29th, 2009…

"… Attention! All stand up! Miss Joke makes her grand and supreme entrance! Welcome to your everyday dose of Miss Joke & Co.! Sponsored by none other than Gabcom! Ta-ta-dan! Ring the trumpets!"

"HUH?"

"Well? Did it look grand?"

"What's with "your everyday dose", Yaito – chan? You'd never said that until today, ya know."

"Don't worry, Meiru – chan, my dear. I know it."

"Know… What?"

"That cha wanna be my VP."

"HUH? VP? Me? Oh come on!"

"Sheesh."

Ayanokouji Yaito suddenly came back into the Akira Middle 4-A classroom while walking like she was in charge of the whole stuff: she made what seemed to be an improvised introduction and the other students frowned or ended up staring at her like they didn't get the point: Sakurai Meiru frowned and began to question Yaito but she replied with a lame joke which made the rest of the students sigh in defeat.

"Say cha will, my dear! I'll give ya bonuses!"

"Wouldn't that be favoritism, anyway? That can be prosecuted, didn't you know? It could be seen as corruption as well!" Meiru protested.

"Don't mind it, my dear! Tamashita Aura – chan, you're welcome as well! Clever girls gotta stick together!"

"Sorry, but I agree with Sakurai there. I don't wanna get into a mess: why don't you cool your head for once?"

Another girl student replied to Yaito once she addressed her while sighing and sounding annoyed.

The girl, Tamashita Aura, was around sixteen years old and roughly a few inches shorter than Meiru.

She had orange curly hair and blue eyes yet she looked pretty much annoyed.

She'd left her Link PET atop her desk: its emblem was a stylized "F" letter colored white and black and set against a blue background which was decorated with snow drops.

"Yaito – sama, let us be rational! Please!" Glyde sighed from inside of Yaito's PET (which she carried on an arm-strap).

"You heard Glyde, Yaito – chan. Let's be rational." Roll, Meiru's Navi, popped out with the hologram and sighed.

"Ya will be Meiru – chan's exclusive bartender!"

"Bartender? ME?" Roll protested.

"Oh come on. Do you think a VP would be having drinks in the middle of the job?" Meiru questioned Yaito.

"Yeah! Strawberry milk! On the house!"

"Not everyone is in love with strawberry milk, you know." Meiru replied.

"You will get to love it, believe me!"

"And if I don't? HUH?"

"Don't get annoyed, dear! It ruins your makeup!

"Chut! I never use makeup!" Meiru whispered back.

"Felicia – chan will be Aura – chan's personal chef!"

"Me? Chef? Oh come on. Yaito – san!"

"Say it, Felicia, say it."

Felicia, Aura's Navi, popped out to complain at Yaito's lame joke.

Her helmet was colored olive green and it had a sapphire set into its forehead which glowed differently depending on the light's angle: the helmet included a cobalt blue matrix over its surface.

Her eyes were cobalt blue as well and two twin tails of blondish hair came out from behind her head.

Her bodysuit's main color was cobalt blue instead and her emblem was the same one as in the PET.

Her shoulders were anatomically correct and had ruby plating over them while her arms and elbow were colored in a mix of blue and white decorated with emerald square dots.

Her forearms were colored orange and had eight thin pink circles circling along their length.

Her legs used a mix of blue and yellow and contained diamond-shaped brown dots scattered at random.

The boots had been painted using orange color and had zigzag patterns which vertically spanned the height of them.

"Guys… I think that it's better for us to go out and let the girls settle it between them… Don't you think so?"

"Guess that, Netto – kun… Whaddya say? Nelaus?"

"I agree with you guys. Let's go out."

Hikari Netto, who'd been chatting with his brother Saito and another student, began to whisper to them that it might be better for them to come outside.

"Eh… We're going to have some fresh air. Be right back!"

"Rainon – chan! Did you get the ring?"

"Save me the pointless jokes, Miss Ayanokouji!"

The guy, Nelaus, was about the twins' age and maybe some inches taller than either Netto or Saito.

He had neatly arranged blonde hair which ended at his neck's base and his eyes' irises were green emerald.

His facial features were rather smooth and suave, thus making him stand out somehow.

He carried a Link PET arm strap: his Link PET was colored golden and purple: its emblem was the Alphabet letter "I" colored purple.

"Yaito – chan! I'm gonna get annoyed! FOR REAL!" Aura suddenly got really annoyed.

"Huff."

The 3 guys ran off the classroom, down the stairs and into the main yard: they headed for a corner and spotted Hikawa Tooru seated in one of the benches and reading his notes about some lesson or another.

"Miss Heiress?" He asked as he looked up.

"Yeah." They all replied.

"Trouble… Desu." Ice Man sighed.

"Trouble, yeah." Nelaus' Navi grumbled.

"Sorry for dragging you into that mess, Isaac. Guess I should've told you to go have fun out there." Nelaus apologized.

"Don't worry, man. We haven't been living here for over a year in vain: we know what to expect of the gal by now."

"Huff. Compared to us…" Netto sighed.

"Some miracle, alright." Saito grumbled.

"Miracle indeed!" Hikawa rolled his eyes.

"Yes… Desu…" Ice Man sighed.

"Oh come on."

Isaac, Nelaus' Net Navi, had a unique design and was about a meter and eighty tall.

His face was young and looked like a guy on his teens: his eyes' irises were purple and displayed pure annoyance by now.

His helmet had a central ruby jewel over the forehead shaped like a cross having four triangle ends: eight lines radiated from the central of it and spread across its surface.

The helmet's main color was navy blue and it was also filled with small round and random green dots.

His ear-pads had a white edge and a reddish central body: the Alphabet "I" letter colored purple had been printed there.

His neck had a piece of armor shaped like the Alphabet "V" protecting its base before the start of the chest: it had a cyan edge which split it into two halves the insides of which were colored yellow.

His shoulders were slightly curved square pieces with brown edges, a central silver matrix and five bronze paws forming out of the southern edge which weren't even 5cm long.

His main body color was blue and a central thin purple line spread from the neck's base until his waist, being interrupted by his chest emblem which had the same design as that of his ear-pads.

Some small jade-colored pieces made of two triangles aiming in opposite directions fused at their base were set in columns along the sides of his upper body: none of them were taller than 2cm.

His waist had a belt with three converging rectangular stripes of white edges and black body.

These fused in a diamond having a gray body plus a repetition of his Navi emblem on its center.

His arms had purplish DNA imprints painted over their surface.

His forearm armor had a magenta matrix on them.

His wrists were colored in a bronze color.

His hands were blue in color too and they had a circle with a white edge the insides of which depicted the Katana "I" colored purple: some "stars" were drawn at random over the background of the symbol.

His legs had some round dots set along their height which contained a drawing: the edge was brown, the core of it was purple and eight slightly curved lines painted red stretched from the core: the gaps between each one were colored blue.

The knees contained a circling bracelet colored mahogany and having those two fused triangles on the front colored golden.

The boots were colored purple and had an eight-pointed sapphire set on the inward side just below the ankle

Eight thin indigo lines spread from each spook of the sapphire and across the boot.

Overall he was very cool and looked advanced.

"By the way… Ex – _senpai_… The guy's been quiet, no?"

"Yeah. According to Omega… Only Bapgei goes in and out of the turf to get groceries for himself." Netto replied.

"Must be trying to come up with something worth it. That plan of a while ago felt very improvised." Saito shrugged.

"Totally improvised." Isaac fumed.

"Eh… Tooru – kun? An email, desu… From "VR", desu…"

"VR? Oh come on. Send it to the spam box." Hikawa groaned.

"Yes, desu…"

"VR… Vincent "Red"… But it's actually Cloud Man who sends those." Isaac sighed in defeat.

"Why haven't they locked the guy in a madhouse by now?" Nelaus grumbled.

"According to Omega, they did warn the local medical authorities but Cloud Man wouldn't let them into the house. And they couldn't force it because Cloud Man looked ready to kill, even." Netto rolled his eyes and sounded like he found the whole deal to be incredibly stupid.

"Man. I knew Cloud Man was the moron of the gang but going to those extents to protect the origin of his shitty jokes… The guy's gotten weird, really. Well. Was the weirdo to begin with. At least Swallow Man's trolling is better." Isaac sentenced.

"Guys, guys! I did it! I got it! Got it!" Ooyama Dekao rushed in while having something wrapped in aluminum foil.

"What." They skeptically asked back.

"The evil of life! Sealed in here! I'm going to banish it! And then I'll become a saint!" He exclaimed.

"Sheesh. He believed Vincent's latest idiocy."

"I prefer Dragon – san's banners to that. At least they have some irony to them." Netto muttered.

"Dekao – kun. You got trolled. As usual."

"E~H?"

"Guts, guts. Had the hunch, de guts."

"Even Guts Man with his limited wits saw it coming." Isaac added.

"E~H? NO WAY~! KAMI – SAMA~!" Dekao yelped and ran off.

"Madness city alright." The guys (save Ice Man) fumed.

"Desu?" Ice Man wondered.

"It's already 11:22! Let's go back in and get ready for the next lesson: hopefully the girls have finished discussing." Saito suggested.

"Miss Heiress…! Someone halt her already." Nelaus groaned.

"We'd all love that. For real." Netto grimaced.

11:38 AM (Japan Time)…

"… So, Number Man… Anything new?"

"Ah. Blood Shadow. Not really. Apart from the usual idiots."

"Cloud Man and Higure – san?"

"Yeah."

"MASU~! I defy thee to a revolve duel! MASU~!"

"What was that?"

"He believes he's an 18th century Frenchman."

"Oh come on."

"Guess who's to blame."

"Cloud Man, the…!"

"Indeed!"

A Net Navi had come into Internet City's Higureya locale to have a chat with Number Man, Higure Yamitarou's Net Navi: they both heard Higure yell something in the real world that was caught by the PET's mike.

The Navi, Blood Shadow, used red as his main body color.

He sported black shades and a flock of messy reddish hair came out from behind the helmet given how it only covered the face and the front of the head: his ear-pads had two purple "V" letters drawn inside of them.

His armor had the purple letters "BS" engraved on the chest area while his legs were colored black and had two red stripes running down the legs' sides in a parallel manner.

His right forearm was covered by a device colored red coupled with a piece of it which was colored transparent red.

A small indentation near the wrist had the same "BS" initials engraved there: and, where the hand would be, a large double-barreled shotgun emerged instead.

"Now he thinks he's Le Comte Higar Demas."

"Count Higar Demas? Sheesh."

"I know. It feels like a parody of _The Count of Montecristo_ by Alexander Dumas." Number Man whispered.

"That's nothing to make fun of… It's a pretty tragic story!"

"I know! But the illiterate imbecile out there…!"

"Higure – san… What are you… doing?" Kido Shuuko timidly asked him in a whisper yet loud enough to be heard.

"Practicing! De masu! To defend my pride and store!"

"Huh…?" She didn't get any of it.

"Pyururu?" Aqua Man wondered: he apparently was still inside of Shuuko's PET.

"Will that help you increase your sales, anyway? Higure – san." A woman's voice asked with a sigh.

"OH! Yuriko – san! De masu!"

"Yeah. You better remember to stop bothering sis with your Platonic love or whatever it's supposed to be." Oozono Yuriko reminded him.

"B-b-but! Ma'am! I now am a Count! De masu!"

"Oh come on." She groaned.

"I need to be a Duke? De masu?"

"NO! What you need to do is land back to Earth!" She snapped.

"YEARGH!"

CRASH! THUD!

"I'm seein' starsss… Masu~…"

"This is so…! Ah whatever! I'm off. Too bad! You've just lost a customer: here I wanted to buy an Area Steal but no~!" She apparently ran off.

"Huh-oh." Shuuko muttered.

"Yo! Brad Shad. Here ya were!"

"Sigma. It better be important."

"Whoa! What's with the hostile mood, man?"

"Too much idiocies."

"That bad?"

A new Navi stepped into the store and greeted Blood Shadow with what seemed to be a nickname but he replied in a hostile manner.

"I found 8 guys of Legion 64 spying on the Tokyo Exchange…"

"The Tokyo Exchange? Now Twilight wants to play Wall Street shark?"

"Dunno. They ran off before I could catch them."

"As usual."

Sigma was about two meters tall.

He was colored jet black: a red spheroid could be seen set on his chest area and it seemed to be missing the armor over its mass.

His face had two red eyes and one shone brighter than the other: two horns, one of which was almost erased, were set on both sides of his head and added a "demonic" look to him.

Green data flows moved around his body and he held a massive black and green sword in his right hand which he was currently aiming at the floor in lazy manner.

"Well. Guess sitting around won't do any good so… Let's go back to the school and check up with Isaac." Blood Shadow sighed.

"You go. I want to ask Number Man something."

"Fine. But don't come troll me next or I'll ring up Commander Omega: and I mean it. He who warns a traitor is not." Blood Shadow warned as he walked out.

"Yikes." Sigma gulped.

"Well?" Number Man impatiently asked.

"Whoa! Gimme a break, man. Do you know any Program Advances that use bomb-class Battle Chips?"

"Apart from Giga Count Bomb?"

"Apart."

"Greatest Bomb."

"Oho! Chips?"

"Small Bomb, Cross Bomb, Big Bomb."

"Gotcha!"

"Pretty wide explosion range and packs some damage… It's rather useful for types who move a lot or for Virus hordes…" He described.

"Alright. Time to go hunt those, then…"

"MASU~! The hunt season has begun! The Bates Ranch and its cursed buffalos are waiting! De masu!"

"Man. It's gotten worse." Sigma muttered.

"Yeah. Someone should check the guy's head."

"Higure – san… Cold water…"

"Cold water? Masu?"

SPLASH!

"BRRRR! ACHOO~! MASU! What was I doing, de masu? Ah! The store, the store! I lost a customer! Masu~!"

"Good thinking, Shuuko." Number Man muttered.

"W-well, I'll be on my way. Bye!"

"Hum. Goodbye. Now let's make this idiot behave. Easier said than done."

12:39 PM (Japan Time)…

"… BY ALL THE…!"

"Huh? Was that Superintendent Manabe?"

"So it'd seem, Enzan – sama."

Ijuuin Enzan had been about to buy a cup of coffee from a vending machine in the Net Police HQ when he heard a woman's voice yelp close by so he looked towards the left, surprised, as Blues admitted that Enzan's hunch might be correct.

"The…! What nerve…! I'll show them yet…! By all the…!"

"What is the matter? Ma'am?"

"THIS!"

"Whoa! P-please calm down, ma'am!"

"LIKE I CAN!"

Superintendent Manabe suddenly appeared strolling down the corridor at a brisk pace and looking pretty if not totally infuriated: Enzan asked her what was wrong and she suddenly placed her PET's screen inches away from Enzan's face: he tried to calm her down.

"An email…? "Skinny women stay outta this. IQ – sama."… Ah…"

"SKINNY? ME? SAYS THE VILLAIN!"

"Uh-oh."

"What do we do, sir?"

"I'm not sure."

"Now, now! Manabe – kun. What's the source of…?" Commissioner Kifune approached her and tried to be welcoming.

"I am sorry, sir, but…! Ah! I can't stand it anymore! I feel rabidly, overwhelmingly, vehemently disgusted! SIR! And if you shall excuse me, I feel like taking it out on something! SIR!"

She ran off, leaving Kifune astounded as to what had happened. Enzan sighed and Blues did as well.

"Well? Enzan – kun."

"Yes, sir. It was a taunting email from Anaya Maria, sir."

"A taunting email?"

"Yes, sir. I shall quote. "Skinny women stay outta this. IQ – sama."…"

"Oh come on."

"Apparently she's found out Superintendent Manabe has… Hum… Well, can be obsessive with her weight and so… She purposely attacked that sensible spot. Sir." He politely explained.

"I see. Well. No use crying over spilled milk. If only Manabe – kun wasn't so sensitive about that…"

"Trouble, sir?"

"Ah. Laika – kun. Well. Enzan – kun will tell you. I'm going to my office: I've got some job pending."

"Yes, sir."

Laika casually came in and saluted: Kifune returned the gesture and then walked off, sighing: Laika selected a coffee as Search Man projected with the hologram.

"So?" Laika asked as he sipped some of the coffee.

"Anaya taunted Superintendent Manabe by attacking a sensitive spot of hers and she's in a terrible bad mood." Enzan quickly summed up as he drank some of the coffee.

"Lovely." He grumbled.

"Last thing we needed." Search Man groaned.

"Totally." Blues sighed.

"So? How about you?"

"Me? I tried investigating the Tokyo Exchange. Sigma told me 8 guys of Legion 64 had been there. But there was nothing out of place: I left some undercover programs just in case." Laika replied.

"Maybe it's a red herring."

"Thought so already."

"We've got no choice but to wait for something to happen."

"Something's already happened." Dark Miyabi rushed in.

"What?" They eagerly asked.

"44 of them assaulted me." Shadow Man drily announced.

"44 of them! Where? When?" Search Man asked.

"Not even 5 minutes ago. And I was just coming out of seeing a _kendo_ match in a new _dojo_ that has recently opened… Not like I was poking my nose in their stuff, either…"

"Hmmm… Did it feel like they targeted you or they wanted to create some chaos in the _dojo_?" Blues asked.

"Good question. I think the latter. I just happened to be there and they focused on me. But it was no easy job. I had to pull a lot of Chips and technique to KO them. That should teach the lot that they shouldn't take me lightly." Shadow Man explained while fuming.

"Hum. I see." Enzan rubbed his chin.

"If you're wondering… I found the remaining 20 about to break into a Family Mart store's Cyber World. Needle Man happened to be about to go there to order some groceries I needed." Yuriko stepped in.

"Shah, shah, shah! Yeah! They put up some fight and some of them used Barrier Battle Chips to prevent damage." Needle Man explained.

"True. Some of mine also used barrier-class Battle Chips but luckily they didn't have any Dream Auras. That would've been a living Hell." Shadow Man admitted.

"I heard the talk. What should we do?" Misaki Gorou joined them.

"Ah. Detective Misaki. Well. I don't think we can do much if both targets were chosen at random and we just happened to be there." Enzan told him with a sigh.

"Good point… If only there was a way to detect their movements… Or to isolate their signatures…" Prism Man muttered.

"Meijin told me he'd been trying to work on something. Maybe I should drop by the Science Labs and ask." Enzan suggested.

"Alright."

"Detective Misaki, sir. An email from "Miss Joke & Co."…"

"Who? Open it."

"Roger, sir."

"What's this? "Handsome fellas welcome to take care of the garden."… Is this some troll?" Misaki groaned once he read it.

"Ayanokouji… As always." Enzan sighed.

"Sheesh. That girl… Huh? Me too? "Beauties welcome to join the maid staff: strawberry milk on the house!"… Does she think people only drink strawberry milk? Does she ever drink any water?" Yuriko groaned, too, once she read an email.

"Spoiled children… We'd be better sans them. Truly."

"I totally agree. And let's not talk about adult spoiled children."

"Tesla Magnets? Sheesh. Stubborn gal." Yuriko sighed.

"I know. She's making so much publicity of herself as the new Gauss Console President and always saying "a lady who isn't even 30 yet!"…"

"Gauss Magnets…! I still remember that stain to my pride…!"

"Go ahead, Miyabi, go ahead… Beat the guy to a pulp along with the gal…"

"Delighted… Stick out your neck, you fool…"

12:58 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Hi there. Meijin."

"Oh. Enzan – kun. Welcome."

"How's that system to track the Legion 64 guys coming up like?"

"Oh, that? Obihiro – kun was working on it."

"Obihiro Shun? Alright. I'll ask him."

"Don't pressure him, though. He's been overworking himself as of late with that because he didn't dare cut time off other research lines he's working into. Deal?"

"Ah! Yeah, of course. I understand: I've had plenty of never-ending days in which I had to overwork too."

"Yeah… Overwork is a problem indeed… They brought it up on a society debate on TV some days ago too…"

Enzan came to the Science Labs and met up with Meijin on his lab: he turned his chair to greet him and they began to chat: Meijin warned Enzan and he sighed as he recalled his own experiences regarding overworking.

"He's on the adjacent lab, as usual."

"Roger."

Enzan headed into the adjacent lab and was surprised to find Obihiro collapsed atop his desk apparently asleep and leaning his head on his arms: some papers had fallen into the ground as well.

He wore a lab coat over a cyan top with a hood, blue jeans and white / red sneakers.

"Oh man. Meijin was totally right. Meijin! Come! Obihiro's collapsed: he couldn't bear with the workload anymore."

"Damn. I knew I should've tried to work on it myself but since he was so eager to be of help and to prove he's competent… I didn't want to disappoint him and…"

"We're not perfect, Meijin. We've had to purge a lot of idiots some fool let inside in purpose as well and we've realized than the Science Labs were short in staff, even." Enzan replied.

"Obihiro – kun… He doesn't react. He's sound asleep. Oh well. Can you help me carry him to the adjacent room? There's a bed he could use: maybe you could take care of the program instead?"

"Sure. I don't have that much work anyway."

Both of them picked Obihiro and carried him to a close-by room which had a bed: they placed Obihiro there and covered his body with the blanket: Meijin turned on a portable heater as well.

"I'm sorry, really." Meijin sighed as he closed the door behind him and once they were back in the lab.

"You needn't apologize to me." Enzan replied.

"I know. But I feel like it."

"Can you give me the program?"

"Sure."

Meijin interacted with Obihiro's console and inserted a Micro SD Card into one slot: he copied something and then handed it over to Enzan: he inserted it into the Link PET's Micro SD slot.

"You can keep it. I've got plenty of these."

"Thanks."

"Oh well. I better finish debugging that faulty piece of code… Don't overwork yourself too much either. Or Twilight will catch us tired and overworked to then sweep through us."

"Good point. The rascal is capable of anything to begin with. It shouldn't come as surprising."

"Meijin? Ah! Enzan – kun. Good morning."

"Hikari – hakase. Good morning, sir."

"Is something the matter?"

"Yes. We discovered a bug in the Dimensional Generator control console software. It makes the console think the DG is overheating and shuts them down before they have time to project the energy to generate a Dimensional Area."

Hikari Yuuichirou came in next and explained a problem they'd just detected to Meijin.

"Hmmm… I've got the hunch it's no casual bug, sir."

"Neo Gospel?"

"Maybe they're planning something and to limit our counter-attack capability they want to disable our Dimensional Areas." Enzan suggested to him.

"I see."

"So maybe… The movements of Legion 64 were red herrings while one of them snuck here and inserted that bug… My hunch turned out to be correct, after all." Enzan rubbed his chin.

"I shall check the firewalls."

"Do so. Maybe there's something in them, too."

"Or maybe not. Maybe they just came physically and managed to Plug-In from a local console bypassing the firewalls altogether." Yuuichirou deduced with a sigh.

"Ah! True, true."

"Can't be helped. We'll have to place some passwords in them. And rotate them every week. Standard security protocol." Meijin sighed.

"Use a standard password generator and rotator: we don't need more overworking. Huff. Maybe we should consider lowering the standards of what is needed to join the staff. At this rate we're gonna suffer from lack of staff for a long time. Let's make it be people who have knack for programming: that should attract some." Yuuichirou suggested.

"Good idea, sir. We could then give them a small 3 day period of trial to get an idea of how good their programming technique is."

"Hmmm… Maybe an idea like that could work at IPC… We're also somewhat short in staff… Problem will be implementing it without someone coming out to scrap it… Huff… Guess I'll have to boil my brains as well… Good morning." Enzan muttered.

"Good morning. And don't worry: I'm sure you'll find a way around somehow."

"Thank you, sir. Let's go, Blues."

"Roger, Enzan – sama."

Enzan walked out of the Science Labs and headed for the bus stop just outside the complex: he sat on the bench and began to review the program he'd gotten.

"Whoa. It's pretty well done. Over 80% is done and the basic structure for the rest of it has been roughly sketched. Both Meijin and Obihiro sure worked hard on this." He muttered.

"True, sir. Hmmm?"

"What's wrong, Blues?"

"I felt like someone was spying on us, sir."

"Neo Gospel?"

"Could be, sir. Certainly not Ayanokouji. They should still be in the middle of a class, sir."

Enzan got to his feet and looked around: he spotted a minuscule hole in the perimeter wall behind him and headed over there: he glanced inside but saw no-one: there were a couple trees and two or three bushes that blocked most of the vision, though.

"Hum. Either they ran away or they're elsewhere… Hmmm? There's something written in the ground…? Someone's used their foot to draw text in the sand…" He spotted.

"Is that so, sir?"

"Yeah… What is it? "Swordfish: you doomed"… Why do I feel like Cloud Man wrote this?" He sighed.

"Who else would use that "you doomed" expression, anyway? It's very popular on Nico Nico when a player in some game is a desperate situation but…" Blues fumed.

"Oh whatever the friggin' ever. Let's just ignore that and go back to the office: we've got work to do with this."

"Roger, sir."

The bus came and Enzan stepped in: he paid the fare with the PET's Cyber Money and then sat down on an empty seat: he found a pamphlet decorated with pumpkins and brooms and which read "HALLOWEEN PARTY FOR THE FOLK" yet it didn't specify where or when or who organized it.

"Sheesh. Cloud Man's turning into a stalker now? He bothered to leave this here for me to see. Who else would write "for all folk" in English, anyway?" He grumbled.

"Bothersome fools…" Blues mumbled.

"Hmmm? Something written in the reverse… "It came~!"… What came, anyway? And that's another thing taken from Nico Nico."

"The fools can't do better than rip stuff from somewhere."

"Yeah. Let's hope they don't bring out the _Twilight Princess_ bosses next: that would be annoying."

"Truly, sir."

"Next stop: Densan City 4th district: Yodobashi Camera."

"I'll get down here and go walking. Need to vent off the bad mood…"

"Roger, sir."

_Neo Gospel… If this is but a teaser… Then we're in deep shit. Damn it all._


	2. Chapter 2: Pumpkins and trolls

**Chapter 2: Pumpkins and trolls**

19:19 PM (Melbourne Time), Thursday October the 31st…

"… Good afternoon, Master."

"Ah. Philip. You came over?"

"Yeah. Any new plans?"

"Hmpf… Some, yeah… But I won't spoil them…"

"I see."

"Oho. Bapgei~… Missed ya~… Did ya come to see my preparations for tonight's ritual?"

"What crap is that?"

"Cloud Man! I demand explanations!"

"Uoh! Twilight – sama! No, eh, that's…"

"Speak! Now!"

"Y-yes, sir…!"

A teenager stepped into a house's living room: he had jet black hair and green emerald irises.

He could be around sixteen or seventeen years old.

He wore a sleeveless black vest over a marine blue t-shirt plus jeans and white sneakers.

His height seemed to be about a meter and seventy tall.

"I guess it's some crap not worth it, Master."

"Wha~t? Bapgei~! Man! Don't call it like that!"

"Silence!"

"Huh! Y-yes, Twilight – sama!"

"And when Bapgei is here speak in English!"

"Roger, Master!"

The man named Twilight had been sitting in the sofa and doing something with a Toshiba laptop which he had atop his lap: a man's voice rang out and he quickly got annoyed.

He seemed to be on his mid-twenties: he had blonde hair and his eyes' irises were green emerald too.

He wore a black suit over a white shirt, black trousers and brown shoes.

He could be around a meter and eighty tall.

"Show your ZARA hide!"

"B-but, Master… You, sir, designed these…"

"Didn't I tell you to show your hide, you damned hybrid?" Twilight growled next.

"Y-yes, sir!"

"ZARA hide, come on…" Philip, AKA Bapgei, inwardly muttered with some exasperation.

A Net Navi wearing armor all over its body suddenly materialized inside of the room.

The armor included a full-head helmet with grayish patterns on it and one which formed the shape of a mouth: a nose-shaped form had also been included and it had two small slits for the eyes, which were yellow and lacked any irises.

The helmet's forehead had a Net Navi emblem on it as if to ID them in another manner that wasn't their own voice.

The shoulders and neck area had some red lines drawn on them: the chest armor had two large empty cavities set on each side of the chest.

A white ragged and worn cloth stretched from the waist downwards but it seemed to be purely decorative.

The arms and legs were covered in sturdy and thick black armor.

He sported a large red cloak stretching behind him from the shoulder armor and until the knees' height.

The boots were colored crimson red.

As a weapon he was handling a red-bladed sword with a black hilt.

"What ritual?" Twilight demanded.

"Trick – o' – treat…"

"What. Why call it a ritual then?" He fumed.

"I thought it sounded creepier… Halloween is about terror, no?"

"Well, yeah." Bapgei admitted.

"So I thought I would go and scare some brats with something I've readied… Neo Gospel's purpose is to spread fear and terror, isn't it, Master?" Cloud Man quickly argued.

"Hmmm… Fine. As long as you cover your trails and make sure_ kyoudai_ and co. don't figure out this address… I'll tolerate that. But don't say "ritual" because I thought that you were gonna kill someone outside of orders." Twilight fumed again as if to express his dissatisfaction at Cloud Man's naming sense.

"My apologies!"

"Popsicle Man! You should've kept a closer eye on this hybrid!"

"Lord Twilight, sir…! My name is Freeze Man, sir…!"

"I change them when I feel like it! Gotcha!"

"Yes, sir… Not again…" Freeze Man mumbled.

"Come out! Got orders for your melting hide."

"M-melting hide? Sir!"

"And here I thought I was lame." Cloud Man muttered.

"I thought you knew Master's random moods by now."

"I knew them, man. It's just that I didn't think they could get to that level to begin with." He whispered back.

"So?"

"What are my orders?"

Freeze Man had materialized next: he also wore that body armor yet it had one design difference.

And that was that, within the empty chest cavities, there were large yellow eyes which narrow black irises set there.

"Simple. Melt down! HMPF!" He snickered.

"… Huff. Why do I have to go through this?" Freeze Man sighed.

"Anyway… Things seem to be getting on the move out there so I'll be excusing myself… Bring out ya suit too and join the party! Bapgei~…"

"You moron. Like I would. I don't want to be spotted and stalked by the guys out there." Bapgei grumbled.

"Hybrid Man! Get outta here!"

"R-roger, sir!"

Cloud Man ran off and quickly looked around while standing outside of the house's door: he quickly got invisible and wandered around some of the nearby streets: he seemed to be trying to put some distance between him and the house.

"… 570 meters… Good. If I show up here then they could think the house is within a close radius from here… That is, I could lead their searches to a blind alley… I've got enough brains to know that, ya know… Heh, heh, heh, heh… Time for "it" to be Special Summoned…"

Chuckling under his breath he turned invisible again and headed for a square having a slide and other attractions for children: some children who looked like they were early elementary had gathered here with Halloween disguises such as a wizard, a skeleton, a fairy, Frankenstein, a zombie and so on.

"Ahem, ahem."

"Whoa! Who's this guy?" One wondered.

"Dunno. But he's got hi-class stuff!"

"Cool."

"Do you wanna see something cool, kids?"

"Yeah!"

"Beware! Flying Ducking Crashing Pumpkin!"

"HUH? Whoa!"

A large-sized pumpkin (as wide as a person and about the usual height of one) having black bat wings and with crimson glowing eyes, nose and mouth suddenly swept down from above like it was a bird: the kids ducked as it cut through the air above them and then flew back skywards: they turned towards there and Cloud Man inwardly snickered as he quickly ran off.

"That was cool!"

"Whoa!"

"What was that?"

"Maybe it's got a toy plane inside?"

"Guess that."

"Whoa! The guy's gone."

"True. Man. That was cool."

_Heh, heh, heh. I knew it. That it would be a success! The Flying Ducking Crashing Pumpkin Evening has begun! Shudder, shudders! The Big Boss has come! Envoy an envoy! The evil, blessed and repellent non-legged duck! Nyah, hah, hah, hah, hah! Vincent's a genius, yessir. Like I would allow some idiots to close my fella in a madhouse… Over my dead body, I swear! Let's go have some more fun… Heh, heh, heh… _

22:12 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Boss… Bad, bad news."

"What now. Liquid's stolen CIA dossiers?"

"We've got a problem. 3 of them."

"What? Explain yourself, Lartes."

"Yeah. It goes like this…"

A man stepped inside of a room while sighing.

He appealed as being on his mid 20s: he had blackish combed hair and his eyes' irises were brown.

He seemed to be over a meter and eighty tall approximately.

He wore a white medic's coat along with jeans and brown shoes: he also had a pair of reading glasses on.

The room was shaped like a dome: the ground had the general form of the Hikari emblem although the straight line and the pyramid-like bases were placed at the north and south ends instead of being in the north-west and south-east ends like in Netto's bandana.

There were two half-hexagon spots which had been built such that the ground was thirty centimeters lower and covered in a grid-like material.

The corridor was only wide enough for one person to walk through and it had a small hole from which a rail originated around the middle point of it: it extended forward until it reached the spot where the man's armchair (which had a purple Alphabet "V" drawn behind it) was at.

A closed hatch could be seen set on the ceiling directly above this middle spot.

The far end had a control console a group of 3 LCD screens set in a curved manner over the console: the room had some circular LED lights (like the ones in traffic lights) set on the walls forming figures.

"Some days ago, in the prison those 3 are at…"

"There was a revolt or what? Lartes."

"Please let me explain, Boss…"

"Alright."

Lartes' interlocutor was sitting in a black metallic armchair which had just turned to face him.

The man sitting on it looked on his mid – twenties, had messy jet black hair and red eye irises.

He wore a grayish armor made of several plates joined together of an unknown material and two swords sheaths were attached to his black belt.

His arms and legs were also covered in plating and he had boots and gloves of the same material.

A purple ragged, stained and torn cape hung from the back of the shoulders and reached all the way to the floor.

"Some days ago… They all said there was no need to bring them the usual food: Twilight apparently smuggled them some snacks… Nobody dared deny them: you know how they actually are in control of most of the prison… Some days passed… And a few hours ago, a woman guard on the women section found Anaya's behavior suspicious. Not speaking to the other two through the fence when they were allowed to come out into the yard… Always seemingly going to sleep at the same moment each day, rising at the same moment… It all looked too mechanical, too. So the guard decided to risk an inspection of the cell…"

"Oi, oi… Don't tell me that…"

"Anaya didn't reply at any inputs… They tried moving her to the infirmary which they did with some trouble… And the medic there found it odd that her body wasn't cold or hot… There was no breathing, no heartbeats, nothing usual… And some minutes later… A beep rang out from nowhere, Anaya frizzled and in her stead… There now was an automated Net Navi there with a holographic skin system!"

"BY ALL THE…!"

"And once they checked the other, Izono and Opoulos…"

"They were fakes, too?"

"Yeah."

"Who told you this?"

"Colonel Botos got contacted by the prison director. The Committee is in max alert now but the problem is… All of this began a week ago: they've got a week of advantage. More than enough time to prepare covers, fake IDs and the likes… So… We've been had."

"RIKIDDO~!" "Boss" growled.

"What happened?"

"Omega? We've been had."

"What, what?"

A Navi rushed in: he was about one meter and eighty tall.

He wore a red vest over his mainly black body and red armor over his forearms and boots.

Two golden circlets were set around his forearms and on his boots as well.

A blue jewel shaped like an inverted triangle was set on the forehead of his helmet which was emitting a cross-shaped flash.

His eyes' irises were blue and they displayed some angst and nervousness while long blond hair came out from behind him and reached until the floor.

"Those 3 ran away by placing Navi substitutes on their cells! A week ago: we've been totally had!" Lartes grumbled.

"Fuck." Omega cursed.

"I'm so gonna…!" "Boss" suddenly stood up.

"No! Trying to assault Twilight's Melbourne hideout right now could be suicidal. The guy could be waiting for us."

"The rascal doesn't know we've found the place!"

"We can't be 100% sure." Lartes replied.

"I'm so gonna…!"

"That won't do." Lartes insisted.

"I agree. Rushing in sans a plan is a very bad idea. And even more if the whole of them attack you at the same time. Not even you could hold your ground against the 8 of them, could you? Even if I was there I could only handle 2 or 3 at the best. The other 6 or 5 would focus on you." Omega exposed while turning cool.

"… Shit. You've got a point, damn it all."

"Is there a problem? There's a lot of noise downstairs…"

"Anaya & co. escaped. And we've just figured it out."

"Huff. They fooled you gentlemen?"

"Totally, Iris."

Iris stepped in while rubbing her eyes and looking concerned: Omega explained what had happened with a sigh.

"They'll target Trill's abilities again?"

"No. Anaya hates using the same plan twice. And now that Isaac has them, anyway, there's no point." Omega replied.

"Phew. That's a relief. Huh? My PET… Who could it be? Hello?"

"Hey there! Do ya wanna join my company as interviewer?" A familiar voice asked her.

"I feel like I know your voice from somewhere."

"Same here." Omega rubbed his chin.

"It's not Anaya. Unless she's distorting her voice, that is. But that doesn't sound like something she'd say… Unless she's trying to fool us using a different speaking register." Lartes muttered.

"Oho. Your pretenders, my chum?"

"How rude!" Iris complained back.

"Damn. I now remember. Ayanokouji!"

"Huh? Oh! Blonde – sama. Been a while."

"How the hell did you get this number? Sigma told you?"

"Oh no! Lil Trill told me once. He said "Trill gonna share numbers with everyone! Yay!"…"

"Huff. Trill… While you're innocent and all… Sometimes your ideas don't bring good results…" Iris sighed.

"Ayanokouji. Cut now. Or else… I'm going to swap your strawberry milk for plain water." Omega improvised as if to try to intimidate her.

"KYA~H!"

The call suddenly ended and everyone sighed: Trill jumped in from the elevator shaft and looked around, scared.

"Is there a ghost? Trill heard a scream!"

"It was a joke by the bad guys." Iris calmly improvised.

"Huff. Bad guys go home! Trill sleepy… Fua~h…"

Trill jumped back down the shaft: the group sighed again.

"It's late. Let's sleep. Tomorrow we'll be fresh to start the hunt." Lartes tried to put some order.

"Understood. Good evening, Vadous – san." Iris told "Boss".

"Good evening. Fua~h… We all need some rest."

"Truly. The Committee will be hunting trails and we'll have a rough estimate by the morning." Lartes told Vadous.

"We all agree. Good night."

_Damn it all. Liquid! I'm so gonna beat you to a pulp when I get the chance!_

22:49 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Phew. Another day ends."

"_Another day_!"

"Phew. Today there was a lot of clients."

"Like every Halloween."

"Hum. Halloween, true… I'd forgotten."

"How unlike you. Father."

"That sarcasm? Regal."

"Maybe so."

"Now, now. Gentlemen."

"Don't worry, Maha. We weren't quarrelling. It's just that I didn't properly teach Regal about irony and sarcasm."

The Maha Ichiban's staff was tidying up after the day's work: Hinoken and Count Elec took out the trash, Iroaya Madoi finished cleansing the tables, Maha was locking the closets and both Dr. Wily and Dr. Regal were apparently discussing.

"Hinoken – sama. Miss Joke & co. recruits pirate wannabes to bury skeletons in the garden." Fire Man announced.

"Wha~t?" Hinoken yelped in disbelief.

"Count Elec, sir. Miss Joke & co. recruits decadent rock stars to make parties heat up."

"_WHAT_!"

"Madoi~… Miss Joke & co. recruits evil women wannabes to punish those who sneak into the kitchen."

"Evil women wannabes?" She gasped.

"What?" Wily wondered.

"Maha Jarama – sama. Miss Joke & co. recruits 5 Michelin star chefs to make parties happier."

"Make parties happier?" Maha frowned.

"Dr. Regal – sama. Miss Joke & co. recruits genius scientists to create the ultimate anti industrial spy security system, sir." Laser Man announced all of a sudden.

"How am I supposed to build that?" Regal annoyingly asked.

"Who the heck is "Miss Joke & co.", anyway?" Wily grumbled.

"Miss Heiress! Who else!" Madoi fumed.

"Oh come on. Spoiled children! As if I didn't have enough with Gauss Magnet's idiotic daughter."

"Heck! Tesla! My _stupid_ niece!" Count Elec grumbled.

"Flying Ducking Crashing Pumpkin! Trick – O' – Treat!"

"What? Whoa!"

The infamous pumpkin swept and almost scratched them: Cloud Man dropped down from above, chuckling.

"Well, well, well. Let devil bite me. It's the decadent villain club!"

"Hmpf! Speak for yourself." Wily countered.

"What?"

"Don't you always fight each other?" Wily poked.

"Che." He grumbled.

"Heh! Don't underestimate the evil genius scientist I am."

"That title feels old-fashioned." Regal fumed.

"What was that? Oh come on. And you'd been behaving quite well ever since some time ago!"

"Today I feel like it, for some reason."

"Huff."

"Heh!" Cloud Man snickered.

"Flee!" Laser Man grumbled.

"Oho. Fine, fine. Boss told me not to start a ruckus today so… I'll be going right back. Greetings from the Castro brothers! _Hasta la vista_, baby! Nyah, hah, hah, hah!"

Cloud Man jumped back into the air and flew atop the pumpkin thing: everyone grumbled and fumed.

"It's late. We better rest."

"Guess so. I'm not properly sleeping as of late. Too much overwork at the Science Labs but that all applies to the whole of us working there. Are labs always short in staff, Father?"

"Sometimes, yeah. I remember that it was like that on my young times, before Spectrum. One problem is the entrance requirements: they tend to be too high and too demanding. They lack reality." Wily sighed.

"I always had that impression when I collaborated with famous labs: they want to keep that image that it's only for the "elite", huh?"

"Indeed. But that only brings more trouble. I think it's about time we abandoned those old formulas and we are more flexible: else this will become a chronic problem."

"Hum. I better tell Rick about this, too. While he's got brilliant marks and in some aspects he's a genius… I don't want him to be obsessed with trying to meet up the requirements laid out by some lab." Regal reflected aloud.

"Yeah. You'd be better off doing that, really."

"Oh, hoh, hoh, hoh! I'm the Vampire Queen! Fear me!"

"_What_! Tesla! You lousy hacker!"

"And what if! I'm the Vampire Queen!"

"Hmpf! You wouldn't even scare a pre-school brat." Madoi taunted her with a snicker.

"KI~H! CHA AGAIN!" Tesla shrieked.

"Yeah. Me. Your worst nightmare: the reviewer."

"KI~H! Become a non-legged duck!"

"What was that? Vincent?"

"Who's that?"

"You didn't get a mail by "VR"?"

"Thought it was Dr. Yoru." She shrugged.

"Twilight doesn't make such crappy humor."

"Then, who?"

"Vincent "Red". A Mexican crazy guy, cha see. In short. Cha got trolled by a crazy Mexican." Madoi snickered again.

"W-what? T-those FOOLS!"

"Tesla, my sweetheart!" Gauss Magnets tried to calm her off-screen.

"No good." Magnet Man muttered.

"_ANIKI_~!"

"KI~H! JACK!"

"You rascal." Elec Man hissed.

"Hmpf. My ruler felt good? Does the taste remain? It's been about 5 years, even. Heh." Magnet Man snickered.

"Huff. I'll do something… Gauss Magnets!"

"Wily – sama!"

"Cut this call or else… I'm going to get ANNOYED. FOR REAL."

"Uwa~h! Cut it, Tesla! Hand it over, you bad child! Here!"

Gauss apparently yanked the PET off Tesla's hands and cut the call: the group sighed in relief.

"Let's scatter. And Count Elec… Get a program to block undesired calls once and for all. For real." Wily ordered.

"_Yes_, Wily – sama!"

"Find one for me too, Laser Man."

"Acknowledged, sir."

"And give me a copy once you get it. It would do us all some good, I daresay." Wily added.

They all headed off in different directions: Wily picked his cart filled with empty cans and began to push it, as usual: he looked around as if he was mistrusting his surroundings.

_Hum… 5 years ago… Having been greatly injured by Pharaoh Man's self-destruct… I went into hiding into a hideout I had ready… I built a robot to act as leader of a new org, Gospel, in my stead. I also appointed Gauss Magnets to be the sub-leader. In the meanwhile, without caring for what the robot or Gauss did, I set to work on rebuilding Pharaoh Man's broken Ultimate Program… And eventually succeeded on it… I created the "Gospel" beast… And set on to try to delete the Cyber World… I almost succeeded yet… Forte, incomplete by then, accidentally infected Rock Man's body with some bugs… And those triggered an unstable transformation named "Bug Style"… It went into a rampage and its power was actually greater than my own "Gospel"… However, Rock Man's body was about to reach its limit to store all of the Tera Bytes of data… Hikari Netto somehow managed to make Rock Man regain sanity and he released all of the data to restore it all, destroying "Gospel" and restoring Forte to full form… My last "evil"… I must not forget about all of the idiocies I've done in life… This is my way to slowly redeem for those: thanks to the late Colonel Barrel I'm now here… I must not betray his last wish: I shall continue to help society… Rest in peace, colonel…_

Sighing, he disappeared into the night's blackness…


	3. Chapter 3: Reputations

**Chapter 3: Reputations**

11:34 AM (Japan Time), Sunday November the 3rd…

"… So… Any news?"

"Nothing. Save for a hunch…"

"What hunch?"

"That Opoulos has gone to Greece because it's his origin country and he might have connections or know a good spot to hide…"

"True. I'd forgotten. I thought he was a New Yorker."

"Well. He _did_ live in NY for a lot of years so…"

"That sadist woman…! Again on the loose…!"

"I know, Meiru – chan…! I still remember that of the summer…!"

"I'm so gonna boycott her company!"

"How many times do we need to tell you, Yaito – chan…? That villain has no company!"

The twins, Nelaus, Meiru, Aura and Yaito had met in the playground of Akihara City and were discussing the recent happenings: the guys sighed while Meiru was burning, Aura grimaced and Yaito tried to play cool but ultimately failed at it: Meiru lashed out at her, annoyed.

"Don't ruin my spotlight, Miss Perfect!" Yaito snapped back.

"What? Speak for yourself!"

"Yeah, yeah!" Aura added.

"Uh-oh." The guys muttered.

"Trouble?" Sigma (in Netto's PET) whispered to Blood Shadow (on Saito's PET).

"Yeah." He drily replied.

"Obviously." Isaac fumed.

"I insist: you need to behave!" Roll scolded.

"Or else we're gonna get annoyed!" Felicia added.

"Yaito – sama, Mr. President is not going to…" Glyde began.

"Bat-gliders should go glide!"

"Not again." He groaned.

"Hmpf! How pitiful! _Ronins_."

"Oh heck." The guys growled.

"Who?" The girls and Glyde wondered.

"Yamato Man. Not you next." Isaac groaned.

"Hmpf! You disgraced _samurai_: shut your vile trap!" Yamato Man's voice taunted.

"I don't need _sengoku_ speech!" Isaac fumed.

"Show your hide. If you've got the damned GUTS." Blood Shadow icily challenged.

"Hmpf!"

Everyone turned on their holographic screens to see Yamato Man (wearing the same armor Cloud Man and with his emblem on the forehead) standing on the entrance of the Cyber World playground area: the 3 guys had drawn their weapons (Sigma his sword, Blood Shadow his shotgun and Isaac a blade which seemed to be made of diamond) because Yamato Man had his spear ready as well.

"Samurai Man! Did I ever tell you to start WWIII?" Twilight suddenly growled over his radio band.

"Huh! Twilight – sama! I thought I might…"

"You snuck out without even telling Popsicle Man! Where is your damned loyalty? Huh? Or was it gone with the wind? In Casablanca?"

"T-that is… I thought that I might show them we're a formidable foe!"

"We'll do that when I feel like it! Not when YOU feel like it! Else I'm going to exile you inside of a dimensional gap like Ganondorf did with the useless Phantom Ganon!" Twilight growled.

"R-roger, sir! You got lucky…!" He whispered.

"I heard that!" Twilight got further annoyed.

"Yamato Man… You just had to screw it up!" Freeze Man groaned.

"Y-yes, sir…" He gulped.

"COME BACK! FATTY MORON! Brandenburg Gateman! Use your damned piece of junk!"

"Not again." Zoan Gate Man complained in the background.

"MOVE IT!"

"Y-yeah! Remote Gate!"

"I'll be back!"

Yamato Man jumped inside of the Remote Gate and it vanished: the group sighed in relief and lowered their weapons.

"You lot better don't dare think I was generous! I stopped that fatty moron 'cause I can't stand idiots who want to play smart! Once all is ready I'll come bury you 100 feet under!" Twilight threatened.

"Hmpf. Come anytime. Ex – _senpai_." Nelaus drily replied.

"MALASHASHALASHA~H!" He growled something undecipherable.

The broadcast ended and the Operators fumed along with the girls as if they'd had more than enough of that behavior.

"… Maybe the whole of it was an act?" Blood Shadow suggested.

"Hmmm… Could be. The guy didn't behave like that back when I was being trained but that was because ex – Boss was there to keep the guy on check 24/7…" Nelaus rubbed his chin.

"There's a possibility." Isaac admitted.

"Hi there! Are you Akihara Middle 4th year?"

"Huh? Yeah. Who are ya?" Meiru replied.

"Karazawa Mana! I'm gonna transfer into Class 4 – B next week!"

"Whoa!"

A girl they didn't know walked into the playground.

She was about Meiru's and Aura's height and she seemed to be about their same age too.

She had long blonde hair which she'd tied in a ponytail and brown eye irises.

She wore a brown leather jacket, a knee-long yellow skirt, black stockings and brown heeled shoes.

She also carried a purple purse with blue patterns over its surface and an arm-strap for a Link PET.

Her Link PET was colored mahogany with crimson edges: the Navi emblem had golden edge, purple body and the _kanji_ for _oujo_ or "Princess" written on it using azure color.

"I'm from Nagoya City! Turns out the private academy I attended was stained by a corruption scandal and shut down: my aunt happens to live in Densan City 3rd district and she recommended Akihara Middle to finish my studies. I arrived yesterday." She explained as she sat on one of the benches.

"Hey! That purse! Maeda brand, isn't it? Hi-class!" Yaito spotted.

"Oh yeah." She looked like she got in the mood to boast.

"But it loses to the Sakari brand."

"You've got a Sakari~?" She gasped.

"Heh! I'm not Miss Heiress in vain."

"Heiress? Of what?"

"Gabcom Inc.!"

"Whoa!"

"There we go." Meiru and Aura sighed.

"My, my. Quite some handsome boys here… Looks like I landed on Paradise, even…" She suddenly glanced at the guys.

The guys made no comment and looked unimpressed at what seemingly was a teasing attempt: their dry faces made Karazawa gulp and her cocky mood seemed to vanish.

"W-what's with those faces?"

"Sorry. But there are too many trolls around here. Best way to shake them off is to make this face. It makes them give up." Nelaus shrugged.

"Heard that?" Blood Shadow suddenly questioned Sigma.

"Whoa! Blood! I haven't done anything today!"

"Not today. But insofar."

"Guys… Don't quarrel." Isaac sighed.

"I just need to remind this brute about how to behave."

"Leave that to Omega, will you?" Isaac insisted.

"What's the matter?" Karazawa asked.

"We happen to be somewhat tense today." Saito shrugged.

"Too much accumulated frustration leads to these. Too often." Netto rolled his eyes.

"By the way. Are you going to introduce us to your Navi?" Roll asked her while looking unimpressed.

"Or that hi-class PET is there to shine and sparkle?" Felicia added.

"HMPF!" Karazawa tried to pose as indifferent.

"Hah! I'll show you what hi-class means." Her Navi's voice boasted.

"Be our guest." The girl Navis challenged.

"I'm Scherezade!"

"Charmed."

The Navi projected out of the Link PET.

Scherezade was a girl Navi who had a golden helmet with a large diamond set on the center of its forehead.

Her eyes' irises were colored platinum and she had a smug grin across her face.

She also sported a pearl collar around her neck.

Her chest had a sleeveless silk cloth over it decorated with silver patterns and having a crystal star on the center of it.

Her chest emblem was the same as the one set in the Link PET.

Her arms had pinkish transparent silk cloth over them and she sported 4 rings in each hand's fingers save for the thumb finger: they were respectively colored, from left to right, red, green, blue and yellow.

She wore tight black silk pants with white patterns spiraling down their length in each leg.

For footing she used grayish heeled shoes which each had a ruby, a sapphire and an emerald set on each of them forming a column spanning down the length of them.

Lastly, she also wore a thin silver-like silk cape hanging from her shoulders and reaching until the ground.

Overall, she felt like she wanted to boast about being hi-class and having a superior air like she was in charge.

"… Ah. We see." The girls muttered with some dryness as if they'd realized something.

"What? How can you not be impressed by this might?" Scherezade annoyingly questioned them.

"Very hi-class but… In the end… You're an _otaku_."

"Huh!" Karazawa gasped as if she realized what they meant.

"Could you please tell us? Sorry for being dense." Nelaus drily requested without beating an eyelash.

"Very easy! All those jewels and colors… They're based off the main series _Pokémon_ games! Red, Green, Blue, Pikachuu… Gold, Silver, Crystal… Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald… Diamond, Pearl, Platinum… Remakes don't count because they use the same colors as the originals." Aura calmly explained while grinning.

"Ah." The guys weren't too surprised.

"In short. Very hi-class but in the end you're an _otaku_ of a popular all-ages series. Not a very promising start, is it?"

"Fine! I confess! I'm not hi-class! This purse is a Chinese imitation I bought in a bazaar! There! Satisfied?" She grumbled.

"Ah. How honest of you." They seemed to be slightly surprised.

"Why did ya go and say it, Mana?" Scherezade complained.

"Aunt said it! That that farce wouldn't last forever!"

"Why did you listen to that gal, anyway?"

"She's my aunt! If I'm living here now it's thanks to her! I was raised to always listen to advice from family, you see!"

"Ah. Yeah. You'd brought it up before. What a pity."

"Sheesh. If only you'd remained as you were… You weren't so prideful before, ya know!"

"Princesses are supposed to have pride, no? I'm just living up to the name you picked. Should've picked a worker woman instead."

"Hi there! What's with the tense mood?"

"Oh. Charles. Been a while."

"Who…?"

"Oho! Morgangantz, Charles Morgangantz. Analog Snatcher! 'Long Capt'n Dave!"

A guy casually stepped into the playground.

He could be about a meter and seventy-five in height but his age was around his early 20s.

He had messy silver hair which spread slightly backwards and formed some spikes: his eyes' irises were blue.

His clothes consisted on a navy blue overcoat which had a central silver button about the waist.

His coat then opened to expose his legs although it covered the rear of them.

He wore a black shirt beneath the overcoat plus black fingerless gloves on his hands: he also sported black jeans and sneakers.

The right shoulder contained blackish armor with an orange-colored edge and a silver button right over it which seemed to help it be gripped to the shoulder: three circles were then drawn on his right sleeve before a triangular piece of armor expanded over the hand: its main body was black too and it had orange edges.

His PET was colored silver and brown and had an emblem: it was a perfect golden-colored cross which was drawn inside of a silver circle having a brownish edge.

"Davis. Not Dave. Charlie~ Team." The Navi sighed.

"Did ya come back from the depths of Saturn?"

"No. And you know it."

"Mr. Black Slab knows it all!"

"It's but a computer, man."

"Ask someone and no – one."

"Sheesh."

Davis, the Navi, popped out next.

He had a deep brown bodysuit and he appealed as being about a meter and eighty tall in height.

His eyes' irises were chestnut brown and his face seemed to be shaped after a man on his early 20s: he currently displayed some annoyance which he didn't bother to conceal.

His helmet's color of choice was red: and so were both of his boots and his forearms.

The helmet had the _kanji_ for "seigi" or "justice" written in a golden coloring vertically across his forehead's height.

The Navi seemed to wear a vest over his chest armor colored silver: this vest had bronze edges: it also had the Alphabet character "D" colored golden set on each side of its body.

His arms contained four thin brownish stripes running down the north, south, west and east side of them until they drew four circles around the wrist: his forearms had extra armor over it colored in a grayish color plus a small red dome inside of each palm.

The legs' length had been designed to include a network of patterns interconnected by some nodes which were reminiscent of human nerves: the boots' front edge was shaped like a triangle and so was the heel: they apparently served as close-quarters combat weapons.

"Who are ya guys?" Karazawa asked.

"The Justice Club! Not to be mistaken with DC Comics' Justice League!"

"I think I've heard rumors of you guys… Some kind of NGO that wants to expose skeletons in the closet of powerful guys and gals…" She apparently recalled.

"Yeah. That's more or less what we do." Charles admitted.

"By the way… Did you hear?"

"What?" Netto asked.

"The _Society News_ magazine will be publishing a new series… It'll be named "Hellfire Period"… The author is a young writer named Taeda Samara… It'll apparently be a fiction work written in first-person style and depicting an "exciting life"…" Davis explained.

"Taeda Samara? I read her previous work, "The People of the Future", which was about the mythic Mu Continent, saying that the survivors of the disaster that sank it hid underground Earth and developed a very advanced civilization outside of other humans' sight… Someone then said it looked like it'd been plagiarized from a comic book having a very similar argument but involving Atlantis instead…" Meiru recalled.

"True. Yet it differed in some aspects too. Like saying an alien civilization had come to Earth before humans existed and left behind hidden relics across the world…" Aura added.

"When is the first chapter?" Karazawa asked.

"Today. It's going to be digitally released at 12:00 PM."

"Could be interesting to kill the boredom…" Nelaus muttered.

"Greetings, Reclaimers! It's been a while!" A cherry voice rang out from close by.

"Spark? Been a while, yeah."

"Who?"

"Guilty Spark 343. Monitor of Installation 04."

The spherical android known as Guilty Spark 343 suddenly hovered into the playground while humming.

"How can that thing be in the real world?" Karazawa gasped.

"The tech to do that has advanced a lot in recent years. Or so it's rumored yet it's still experimental." Scherezade shrugged.

"Correct. I have explosive news."

"Explosive news?" Saito frowned.

"The assets of Miss Joke & Co. are plummeting."

"E~H? Who said that? I meant it as a joke, but there's no real company with that name!" Yaito gasped.

"Monitor… What's your source?" Isaac sighed.

"Explosive News. Like I said."

"Oh come on. That's Cloud Man."

"Is that so?"

"The guy's insulting your intelligence…"

"What! Vexation! Vexation!" He got annoyed and began to fly around like mad.

"Cloud Man? Wasn't that a member of Neo Gospel? The forums are recently filled with people who say they spotted him on Halloween night with flying pumpkin." Scherezade frowned.

"Yeah. A lame troll." Blood Shadow grumbled.

"I thought Neo Gospel was a terrorist org?"

"It is! Just happens that Cloud Man is the group's oddball." He explained to her.

"Ah. Then why don't they sack the guy?"

"Despite being an idiot he's got some battle potential nevertheless so he remains there."

"Odd org."

"Their boss being the oddest of them all." Sigma sighed.

"Why?"

"The guy's so damned random." Roll fumed.

"And annoying." Felicia added.

"I shall show them what I mean when I get serious!"

"What about the Installation? Who's gonna watch over it then?" Nelaus reminded him.

"Oh my! Good point, Reclaimer."

"I've lost track of what the heck's going on."

"We've got a troll loose. That's it." Meiru summed up.

"Ah. When you put it like that…"

"You can see "those"?" Yaito whispered with a grin.

"Very funny, _chibi_." Karazawa drily replied, not being amused.

"What was that?" Meiru and Aura questioned.

"I'm sorry!" She gasped.

"Hum. But don't say it again in public." They warned.

"Y-yeah, I know."

"Huh?" Glyde wondered.

"Don't mind it." Roll told him.

"Alright…" He looked doubtful.

"It's no big deal, really. Don't mind it, I say." She insisted.

"If you say so, Roll – san…"

"In that case I shall go continue my patrol! And prepare a new Perfect Mathematical Sentinel Enforcer Dance of Might and Passion."

"Too long. And you're supposed to be logic-based?" Isaac sighed.

"Maybe Anderson overdid it, even." Nelaus whispered to the twins.

"Well. Can't blame the guy. He wanted something to help him take out stress of overwork so…" Netto replied.

"He surely didn't think he'd keep it around this long." Saito added.

"By the way… Any of you know a gal named Kataka? I found her on my way here and she seemed to know who I was. She tried to convince me to come to an all-girls' academy saying she'd let me join her "elite club" but something about her behavior didn't convince me."

"My ex – _senpai_. You did well on not listening to the gal." Aura rolled her eyes and sighed.

"Why's that?"

"Simple. _Yuri dominatrix_."

"Eh!" She gasped.

"I almost fell into her claws, too, but ran away in time."

"Heck. Now I see what that glare was. Pure unrestrained lust!"

"Indeed. Next time tell her a cop's trailing her. She'll run as fast as she can: guilty as charged. I always do it when she dares to stick out her hide around me."

"You hadn't told me, Aura – chan." Nelaus frowned.

"My bad. I thought I'd rather solve it myself. It's personal, see."

"Ah. Alright. But if it gets troublesome then…"

"I've got the mower."

"The mower?" Karazawa wondered.

"Heh! My best invention to date. It shows up, swings saw-equipped arms, and chases you flying for 1024 meters while yelling."

"Why 1024 meters?" Scherezade asked.

"I wanted to make an irony of how 1024 bytes make a kilobyte instead of 1000 bytes. You know: kilogram, kilometer…"

"Ah. When you put it that way… But does it really cut?"

"Of course not. The saws are holograms. But it does set the fear on the weakling. Tee, heh, heh." She giggled.

"Well. Charles has something he wants to tell us so we'll be going. See you on Monday. And, Karazawa – san… Beware of troll emails and of the Chip Store owner. You'll soon see the why." Nelaus warned as the guys began to head away.

"Guess that." She wasn't surprised.

"We'll make proper introductions tomorrow." Netto added.

"Bye."

"Tell Frozen Guy I want him to drop by the tree house!"

"Tooru – kun isn't your boyfriend anymore, Yaito – chan. Stop forcing him to stick around when the only thing you ever did was to bombard him with trolling." Saito grumbled.

"I knew it." Meiru muttered.

"Huh? Am I THAT readable?"

"How many years do you think I've had to bear with it? 5 years!"

"5? Thought it'd been 3."

"Times flies by faster than one thinks." Aura dully told her.

"By the way… The smooth brown-haired… Your boyfriend, Miss Red?"

"Nope. Got no boyfriend yet."

"The blonde is MY boyfriend!" Aura warned.

"Fine. Do they have a girlfriend yet?"

"Nope." Meiru shrugged.

Roll seemed about to say something but she quickly stopped the gesture and put up an unimpressed face yet that didn't escape Scherezade who snickered.

"Oho. That shotgun guy is your type, Miss Pink?" She snickered.

"Who knows?" She shrugged.

"The blue fellow is my boyfriend so stay away." Felicia warned.

"My, my." She snickered again.

"Uitty-uitty-whu-whu!" Someone made what seemed to be guttural-like sounds.

"What?" They all wondered.

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah. Recognize me?"

"Swallow Man next?"

Swallow Man was indeed standing atop the Cyber World jungle gym and looking down (literally) on them while sounding cocky.

"Bird Man! Your mission wasn't there!" Twilight hissed.

"B-but… It's just a stop along the way and…"

"Questioning ME? Bird Man?"

"N-no, sir! On my way, sir! At Mach 1!" He gulped.

"Hmpf. About damned time, you pigeon…"

"P-pigeon? But I'm a swallow, sir!"

"Whatever the friggin' ever! Move it, moron!"

Swallow Man quickly jumped into the air and formed a Dash Condor to ride atop and soon vanished out of sight.

"Well. That guy's also a troll but is an _amateur_ compared to Cloud Man, anyway." Felicia shrugged.

"Guess crazy stuff does happen here." Scherezade was unimpressed.

"Ya don't know half of it." Roll shrugged.

"Fine. Let's meet tomorrow, then. Bye, _chibi_ – chan_._"

"KI~H!"

"Trouble."

12:05 PM (Japan Time)…

"… And then I went and told that guy "it reeks of looted cologne"!"

"Guess it did, Charles. Can you get to the point?"

"Oh come on. Can't you try being a bit more positive?"

"It's hard to."

"And you want Twilight to get away with it?"

"Ah!"

"Thought as much… We're dancing to the guy's flute again!"

The 3 students were sharing an outdoor café table with Charles: he tried telling them a joke but the twins were hardly impressed: Charles sighed and attempted to cheer them up: he failed but when he brought up a point both gasped and Nelaus lifted his eyebrows.

"Damn it. There we were, falling for it again." Netto grumbled.

"We're not perfect." Saito reminded him.

"Yeah, but nevertheless…"

"Hey. Charles. Chapter 1 is out. Hot off the press!" Davis announced.

"Heh! Good. Let's see… What!"

"What's wrong?" Davis asked.

"Read it!"

"What! "My name is IQ. This is the tale of my campaign to become the ultimate ruler."… Does this mean that…?" Davis read and asked.

"Anaya must've struck a deal with the writer! She'll be the ghost writer and let the writer take the credit! And use this as a campaign to smear our names!" Charles grumbled.

"By all the…" The others cursed.

"What do we do? Tell the magazine to cancel the releases?"

"That wouldn't be wise. The magazine surely doesn't know about the truth of this and thinks it's all a work of fiction." Isaac warned.

"Cancelling it would be like admitting we're afraid." Blood Shadow warned them next.

"So what do we do?" Sigma asked.

"Easy. Pretend it doesn't impress us." Omega suddenly appeared inside of Netto's PET.

"Commander Omega, sir!" Both Navis saluted.

"Vadous got a hold of this?"

"Chief Lezareno got a hold of this because a worker on his department told him. Everyone if not most of the people in the "Committee" has heard of Anaya as "IQ", anyway." Omega explained.

"But if she's bothered to advertise it as a work of fiction… Then people will believe it is fiction." Blood Shadow guessed aloud.

"Exactly. So there doesn't need to be a scandal. Something tells me that if Anaya used her title instead of her name it means that she doesn't dare come out to light. And that means that she's not going to say our names… Or will use nicknames. That's Boss' reasoning for now."

"Hum. I see." Charles calmly muttered.

"Fine. So let's see what's written… "By the time I began middle school I felt like I needed to do _something._ But I was young yet, lacked knowledge and didn't have the slightest idea of what I should do. I decided to wait. I gained a lot of knowledge and by the time I began high school I'd reached a decision: to be the ultimate Queen. Yeah, I'm a woman, in case you hadn't noticed."… So she openly admits her gender, huh?" Davis continued reading before pausing and making a remark.

"She must believe that none of the underground lot would read this: we just happened to have heard of that author before."

"Good point."

"… "But what to do? Obviously, I wasn't gonna become something as boring as the Emperor's wife. Too boring! And besides, the guy would take all credit and I'd be just a bonus. Then I thought: there are S&M "Queens" so… Why not become the ultimate S&M "Queen"? The "Ice Queen"! That was it! But it wouldn't be so easy: of course not. Yet I was lucky. Several factors contributed to my quick rising."… Such as?"

"To be honest… I dunno. Boss never liked to talk too much about Anaya and didn't bother to dig into her past, either." Omega admitted.

"Hum. "I got a hold of a micro-robot patent. Using those I could spy powerful people and take videos of secretive deals, affairs or money-related underground businesses. Or stalk them to figure out their bank accounts and passwords. Using that knowledge, I and my pal Marcus soon amassed a considerable underground fortune. I'm talking about the period from 1996 to 1997. Yeah, in under 2 years."… So that's the origin of her dirty money: equally dirty money."

"Should've imagined it…" Omega shrugged.

"… "I decided to hide my gender and pretend to be a man using the IQ initials. IQ is usually associated with "Intelligence Quotient": I made it look I believed myself to be very smart. I used Marcus as my secretary and spokesman to reinforce the idea. I also discovered an underground boxing ring with about 10 fighters there. Ready to do anything for the highest bidder… I permanently hired them and used them to impose my authority over the underground, ceasing the pointless in-fighting between each and all of the clubs and gangs. Those who would not obey would be disposed of or, to humiliate them, tipped off to the cops. I then decided I needed a symbol of my power. So I built myself an architect Navi which I named Gateway and charged him with building me a palace."… So. Gateway instead of Gate. And Marcus instead of Marco. Vadous' hunch is proving to be correct insofar." Davis told Omega.

"Hum. So it'd seem. For now, that is." Omega looked wary.

"No wonder. You can't know what awaits us."

"Maybe those were the guys who tried to kidnap me years ago…"

"You mean those ones who assaulted one of the hideouts that that guy used back then, in March, 2005, right?"

"Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if they were."

"They were. Our investigations later proved it." Omega admitted.

"Ah. I see. Don't feel guilty for not telling me: I didn't have any need to know it, anyway." Netto calmly told him.

"Fine."

"… "But no ordinary palace. Using secret Ameroupe military tech, I designed it to have a fusion reactor as its core and to able to achieve HEO (High Earth Orbit) in a stealth manner. And to remain parked there for months, like how submarines can travel the world for months without the need to emerge. It would also double as a prison where selected prey would be closed and trained. I made sure to hire potential S&M sadists, both women and men. But I came up with my own rules. Men could only fuck men and women could fuck both. Those were the rules within my private domains."… Hence why Twilight is a damned _shotacon_. The rascal told him he had to be so." Davis grumbled.

"Hmpf… Worthless…" Omega was unimpressed.

"… "Construction would take almost 3 years, from 1997 to 1999. But in the meanwhile, something would happen. Something that would mark the beginning of the "Hellfire Period". The reason for this name? The Demon Tribe was about to rise under the guidance of me, the Demon Goddess, and they would rule both the underground and the surface! And then the world would be razed by the ensuing hellfire! It would bring an end to the short Heisei Period and begin the Hellfire Period! You want to know what it is, don't you? Admit it: you want to know! But! I'm a sadist. So I'm going to deny you that desire. You'll have to wait until the next chapter. Denial play: very efficient to totally train prey whose will has crumbled and they can't live sans the feeling of being punished… Tee, heh, heh. I'm a genius and in the next chapter you'll see why. Look forward to it while trembling in fear like the coward you are! Hah!"… So… That means she's going to talk about Vadous and the others in the next chapter."

"Denial play? Sheesh." Charles grumbled.

"You can feel the villain's snicker in those words alright. I always was mistrusting of it and my hunch would turn out to be correct." Nelaus grumbled next.

"And no feeling of guilt, as usual!" Netto fumed.

"Hmpf. What were you expecting? After that of the summer." Saito growled next.

"What exactly happened, anyway?" Sigma asked.

"I guess us Navis can't understand the full implications of it. In short: it's not something to joke about." Blood Shadow dully replied.

"Yeah. It's not." Isaac's eyes burned with anger.

"Cool it. I know it was a living Hell but if we let the anger control us we're gonna end up like Vader. Although you've got to admit he was a rather poor fellow." Nelaus sighed.

"Huff. You needn't tell us." The others sighed.

"Fine. We're going to investigate the author discreetly to try to see how she gets the chapters. But if Anaya is being smart the gal's using some proxy or other means to deliver it. Speaking of which: the prison staff said they'd seen her write a lot as of late… So that's what the damned villain was writing… Stay on your toes: we can't lower the guard." Omega grumbled before he ran off.

"Another morning spoiled. Damn it all. I feel like we're being robbed of our happiness little by little until none of it remains." Netto cursed.

"Yeah. I've got that same feeling as well… No use crying over spilled milk."

"Well said. I'm going to mobilize my pals as well. Tell the Net Police. We need to search every nook and cranny." Charles stood up, nodding.

"We won't let those villains get away with it. Our word!"

All of them nodded in agreement: the hunt for the villains was on…


	4. Chapter 4: Flow of emotions

**Chapter 4: Flow of emotions**

08:13 AM (Japan Time), Wednesday November the 6th…

"… Hah! What frail defenses. They can't withstand Neo Gospel's cosmic power!"

"Hah! Make way for the _sengoku_! _Ronin_ lot! Neo Gospels' campaign has begun! The woodpecker will knock at your doors!"

"Ugra~h!"

"Gra~h!"

"Mugro~h! That's as far as you come, you ugly rascals!"

"The allies of justice have come to halt ya!"

"Hmpf. Rama… Fine… We've got a pending score of some weeks ago, anyway…"

"I shall tackle the beast of Hell!"

"Fine. Then that neophyte Terminator is mine…"

Yamato Man and Cosmo Man had been attacking what seemed to be a bank's Cyber World: their firepower easily defeated the poorly equipped Security Navis yet two Navis rushed in through the firewall hole the villains had done to confront them.

"Beast of Hell? Mugro~h! Name's Balrog, you moron!"

Balrog looked around two meters tall.

His head was shaped like a demon's with two blackish horns and reddish eye irises as well as sharp teeth: it was protected by a mail around the whole of its volume.

His body was colored red and had black metallic armor with purple diagonal patterns over the surface.

Two small wings with armor over it came out from behind him as well as a tail with a purple flame on it.

His hands and feet ended in sharp claws.

Purple flames surrounded his body.

He was wielding a wrecking ball and a large sharp lance filled with red thorns all over its surface.

His mere presence radiated an intense heat wave.

"Neophyte Terminator? I'm Destruction Man! _Aho_!"

Destruction Man looked close to a meter and eighty tall.

Black shades similar to Blues' own design hid his eyes but his mouth denoted seriousness.

A matrix of nine red spots was set on his forehead.

He had a robot-like designed given his metallic blue and silver armor pieces all over his body.

His armor included a belt while his legs had jets attached to them from behind.

His left arm ended in knife-like fingers and his right arm had an incorporated missile launcher on top of the right palm holding up to 10 missiles.

His body had brown-colored energy conduits which seemed to originate from the chest emblem.

His emblem (the _Kanji_ _hakai_ (destruction) colored metallic gray and drawn over an azure background) was set on the center of his armor.

He also spoke in Kansai dialect.

"Let's go! My new weapon! Flame Chain Hammer!"

"What?"

Balrog suddenly drew a Chain Hammer the ball of which was surrounded by flames and swung it before launching it forward: it hit Yamato Man but shattered a mirror instead.

"Fool!"

"Hah!"

"Ugrah!"

Yamato Man tried to attack from behind but Balrog merely swung his armored tail and the blow hit the waist area of Yamato Man thus propelling him backwards and momentarily stunning him: Balrog quickly whipped around and launched the ball forward hitting Yamato Man fully and forming some wounds on the armor: Yamato Man growled and stepped back while his body began to glow with a purple glow.

"Yamato Man! It's too early for that! Twilight – sama's orders says that it's for emergency situations only!" Cosmo Man warned.

"Huh! I don't want to be reprimanded again." He gasped.

"Then focus!" Cosmo Man grumbled.

"Fine!"

"Chit-chat's over?" Balrog taunted.

"Damned fools! Thousand Spear!"

"Heh! Fire Rod!"

"What? Ugrah!"

Balrog formed a red rod with a large-sized ruby atop it and swung it vertically: a Flame Tower formed below Yamato Man and shot upwards like a geyser of magma: Yamato Man managed to warp and tried another attack from behind but Balrog only needed beat the wings to create a gust that knocked Yamato Man into the ground: Balrog turned around to face him as he somehow got back to his feet.

"Damn it all."

"Where's that pride and whatever? Attacking from behind is a _ronin_ tactic, isn't it?" Balrog taunted next.

"Grrr!"

"I'm not gonna get beaten so easily this time around!"

"Fool! I'm going to…!"

"Yamato Man!" Freeze Man scolded.

"Huh! Freeze Man – dono!"

"Orders are orders!" He nervously whispered.

"R-roger."

"Told you." Cosmo Man fumed.

"You stay quiet. And fight." Freeze Man scolded next.

"Roger, sir." He grumbled.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, sir." He gasped.

"Heh! No big deal." Balrog chuckled.

"Don't get cocky, ya." Destruction Man called out.

He was engaged in a fisting showdown with Cosmo Man and none seemed to have a clear advantage yet because when one hit the other the opponent quickly countered.

"Fine. Come! Overheat!"

"What?"

Balrog roared and his flames got wilder: they suddenly formed a sphere and flew across the air until they hit Yamato Man and latched to him while inflicting some burns there and there.

"Damn it."

"Watch out! It's gotta be some plan!" Destruction Man warned.

"Muramasa?" He guessed.

"Could be! Don't get cocky, ya!"

"Fine. Else AM – sama will get annoyed at me." He muttered.

"Grrr… Come! Blades!"

Yamato Man tossed his spear asides and drew two _katana_ that glowed with an eerie purple glow: he jumped for Balrog while swinging them to create energy shockwaves: Balrog shrugged and tossed the ball forward to hit Yamato Man fully and knocking him off the air.

"Damn it. I forgot about that thing."

"How unlike you." Freeze Man sighed.

"I offer no excuses!" He quickly replied.

"I don't care. Just fight."

"I've got a plan… Hah!"

Yamato Man seemingly repeated his earlier attack so Balrog shot the ball forward but it bounced off something invisible: he seemed to frown under the helmet so the lenses glowed and he began to scan the surroundings with a red scanning light: thick concrete walls had suddenly formed around him turning the area in a 5 meters radius into a maze.

"Hmpf. How sneaky. But I've got the means to deal with these. I'll be borrowing some of your moves, Groudon! Hah! Earthquake!"

The ground rumbled and the vibrations made all walls shudder to suddenly collapse and reveal that Yamato Man had set stationary Mega Cannon weapons behind all of them and was on the middle of setting some more of them: they all opened fire at the same with thick lasers but Balrog suddenly spun upon his axis and dug a hole into the ground so the guns hit each other and destroyed between them: Yamato Man gasped and Balrog suddenly rose out of the ground beneath him: the blow did send him flying and landing, hard, 7 meters away.

"Wasn't your bossy fond of Pokémon, anyway? I'm just borrowing some of their moves. I read about that of 2 years ago." He announced.

"Sheesh. And to think I agreed to that idea…! How childish I was…!"

"It did boost Twilight – sama's mood so it wasn't as childish as you might think it is." Freeze Man reminded him.

"My apologies."

"Enough. Come back already. Use the long route and Zoan Gate Man will meet you at point Bravo to make sure you've got no bug and no tracer on you." Freeze Man ordered with a sigh.

"Roger. We'll meet again!"

"Hey! Pal! Go all out! I'm exiting!"

"Finally!"

"What? You were holding back until they ended the fight?" Cosmo Man gasped.

"What. Did ya chicken?"

"Who will chicken?" Cosmo Man growled.

"Huff." Freeze Man sighed.

"Missile Launchers!"

Destruction Man readied his hands' miniature missile launchers: he shot several of them towards Cosmo Man yet he cut them down without too much effort: Destruction Man made his fists glow before shooting forward towards Cosmo Man: he gasped and jumped to the side to dodge but Destruction Man easily veered left to chase him: Cosmo Man suddenly formed a concrete wall in front of him.

"Destroy Fists!"

"What!"

Destruction Man easily broke through and hit Cosmo Man with the fists: the blow sent him flying across and he hit the perimeter wall yet Destruction Man didn't seem satisfied with the outcome.

"The concrete wall robbed some of my energy. The wall wasn't to stop me but to lower my attack's output. But about 60% of it remained, anyway."

"Hah! Pain Swing!"

"Huh? Ugrah!"

Cosmo Man used the distraction to swing his sword and shoot a purplish slice of energy that hit Destruction Man: he quickly warped in front of him and was about to swing the sword as if to cut off his head but Destruction Man opened two chest compartments on the left and right sides to reveal built-in machineguns which began to bombard the enemy with rounds: the great amount of them and their strength stunned Cosmo Man and Destruction Man loaded energy on both fists.

"Crash Fists!"

"Mugrack!"

The blow, at full power, sent Cosmo Man flying again but he recovered in mid-air and warped again to try to plunge his sword through Destruction Man from behind: he merely ignited some jets on his boots' soils and flew upwards to dodge: Cosmo Man gasped.

"Missile Launchers!"

"Hah! Pain Swing!"

Cosmo Man shot the slice to intercept the missiles but instead of exploding they formed smoke that limited his visibility: Cosmo Man began to swing the sword around like mad as if he expected Destruction Man to come for him at any moment.

"Heavy Laser!"

"What!"

Destruction Man showed up NW of Cosmo Man's position: he drew two thick laser projectors over his hands: he shot two high-power lasers which cut through some of the chest armor and momentarily stunned Cosmo Man yet Destruction Man saw that there was an energy field beneath it that absorbed most of the energy and was seemingly venting it out of the body to then accumulate it on the air: Cosmo Man chuckled and raised his arms.

"Cosmo Gate~!"

"Shit."

The infamous dimensional hole opened and scorching red hot meteors began to drop down around the area while leaving burning craters behind: Destruction Man flipped to put some distance but Cosmo Man rushed towards him and swung his sword: it made contact and formed a deep diagonal cut across Destruction Man's armor revealing part of his Ultimate Program and two parallel ammunition tubes which fed the chest machineguns: Destruction Man landed about 2 meters further in and quickly glanced at the wound but he wasn't impressed by that: Cosmo Man chuckled and Destruction Man seemingly frowned under the shades: he seemed to figure out something.

"Recovery 300!"

"What!"

The wound quickly healed and Destruction Man sighed in relief while Cosmo Man growled under his breath.

"What. Did ya think Recovery Battle Chips are never used? And I see what ya were aimin' for, dude. The heat of the meteors would detonate my internal ammunitions and ya thought it'd destroy me from the inside: but I'm not that slow, dude." Destruction Man calmly exposed.

"Sheesh."

"Hum. A good plan but not all plans always work." Freeze Man sounded slightly satisfied.

"Understood." He grumbled.

"Did you say something?"

"No, sir."

"Just fight. How many times do I need to say that?" He began to get annoyed again.

"I offer no excuses."

"Fine. Let's go! Central Cannon!"

"What?"

A compartment on his torso above the chest opened and a cannon's muzzle popped out: it shot and the recoil pushed Destruction Man backwards while Cosmo Man sliced it yet it turned out to be another smoke howitzer: Destruction Man's forehead dots turned on and glowed with a red glow: he shot another howitzer surrounded by red streaks of electricity that impacted Cosmo Man since he'd turned around thinking Destruction Man would target his rear: the blow opened a wound on the rear armor yet the energy field vented it off.

"Shooting star shower!"

A smaller Cosmo Gate formed and a shower of small meteors loaded up with energy began to bombard the field: each of them produced a bright flash that lasted as much as 5 seconds thus hampering with the visibility: Destruction Man calmly interacted with his shades using the right hand and they seemingly turned thicker.

"I set a polarity filter like in a reflex camera. It reduces the intensity of light my sensor inputs receive. Now I can focus. The guy's in front of me and seemingly waiting for a chance… Let's show the guy this flash show won't stop me… Shut down main cannon… And let's go! Heavy Lasers!"

"Wha~t?" Cosmo Man gasped in disbelief.

The Heavy Lasers hit the hips' armor next yet the energy was absorbed once again: a new shooting star shower ensued and this time the meteors exploded into smaller fragments that shot off at high speed: Destruction Man merely drew the Wind God Racket.

"Wind God Racket!"

He spun around along with it and formed a tornado that repelled the gravel shot at him while also dispersed the still lingering smoke: he advanced for Cosmo Man who chuckled.

"Cosmo Ring!"

He formed his Cosmo Ring, picked it with the left hand and swung it at Destruction Man: he loaded up energy on his fists and the ring bounced off them: Cosmo Man bounced it back with the sword and it ensued in what seemed to be a dead-man's volley.

"Heh! Like in _Zelda_…" Destruction Man inwardly snickered.

"Huff! How tiresome. Cancel Cosmo Ring! Cosmo Planet!"

"Let's go for another round!" Destruction Man grinned.

"Cancel! Grrr!" Cosmo Man prematurely cancelled it.

"Huff."

"Want more? I'm comin' down!"

Destruction Man dropped down and readied his fists: Cosmo Man formed yet another shooting star shower and this time the meteors headed for Destruction Man from all directions: he targeted each and every one of them and shot missiles at them to intercept them: he shot a rush from the left chest machinegun at Cosmo Man as he tried to rush towards him and come attack him: Cosmo Man recoiled and formed a laser gun which he shot towards Destruction Man but he countered with a laser gun he also drew: both pushed against each other and Cosmo Man suddenly detached it as he jumped into the air and tried to go attack Destruction Man: he simply jumped into the air and loaded his left fist: a round red shield formed and he blocked the blade before he delivered a kick on the waist with the right foot: Cosmo Man recoiled and landed back on the ground so Destruction Man did the same.

"That's enough, Cosmo Man. Hmpf." Freeze Man sounded amused.

"What? Ah!"

Destruction Man spotted some Mettools with purple numbers painted on their foreheads rushing out towards Zoan Gate Man's Remote Gate: Cosmo Man chuckled and warped there to jump inside: Destruction Man growled under his breath.

"Shit! We've been had. Those 2 were distractions! Damn them all!"

17:47 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Ah… Good, good… I needed this…"

"Heh, heh. Netto – ku~n… I'm gonna tickle ya~…"

"Tickle Master attacks!"

"Not bad, Tooru – kun! I feel like it, really."

"Man. At least it's at times like these when we can feel in a good mood: thank goodness!"

"Ah! Truly. By the way, Arushi – kun told me he had a message for you guys…"

"What was it? Beware of my tickling tongue, Netto – ku~n!"

"It tickles! Hah, hah, hah!"

Netto, Saito and Hikawa were having sex in the twins' bathroom shower (which was off): they'd geared themselves with some S&M gear which consisted on a thin black leather collar with a ring, bands circling the shoulders and going down the sides, adjustable bands on the hips and the ankles.

They'd also blindfolded each other and placed metallic bracelets on their forearms bounded by a lock while aiming their hands behind.

They all had black 5cm wide vibrator stuffed into them from behind plus anal beads.

They'd also clipped clothes pegs to their nipples as well.

Currently, Netto was standing and leaning his back against the wall while Saito was penetrating Netto (he and Saito didn't have the beads) from behind while Hikawa did the same to Saito (Hikawa did have the beads in): Saito was licking the rear of Netto's ears to tickle him and they were chatting in the meanwhile.

"Well. Cosmo Man and Yamato Man assaulted a bank. Both Balrog and Destruction Man happened to be close by so they headed there…"

"And?" Saito asked.

"Balrog repelled Yamato Man and, after some effort, Destruction Man forced Cosmo Man to pull out yet… It turns out that they were distractions as Legion 64 stole the money."

"Oh heck." Netto gasped.

"I know. Sorry for spoiling the mood but…"

"Bah. Don't mind it. We've got no time to be worried."

"Yeah." Netto grinned.

"Does my penis feel as good as usual? Netto – ku~n."

"Of course. I never grow bored of it, Saito – niisan."

"He's got the biggest, we know." Hikawa giggled.

"Not like Vadous – san made it bigger in purpose, you know. I just happened to get it this size when he readied this cyborg body. And you say bigger but it's only a couple inches." Saito replied.

"But you feel it, man."

"I'm sure Laika's got it bigger, anyway." Saito snickered.

"Oh no! Enzan's got it bigger, trust me."

"How curious. Search Man's got it bigger than Blues. Reversal of roles, I guess?" Saito giggled.

"Guess that." Hikawa giggled too.

"Man! I feel like I'm about to release!"

"Then go!"

"Let's go!"

Netto gasped and released: his released tightened Saito's cock inside of him and Saito released too followed by Hikawa: the group panted and then undid the row they'd formed.

"What's next?" Netto asked.

"Play with my rosy ass!" Saito giggled.

"Yeah, yeah." Netto was far from amused.

"Fine. Then I get to stuff it on Netto – kun." Hikawa was excited.

"You guys really like to stuff it on me, huh?"

"You're the one who always wants to be stuffed, anyway. And now you get to stuff it on me too." Saito replied.

"Yeah, yeah. I knew that, handsome – sama who got invited over by the newcomer." Netto grinned.

"What a surprise, really. Today at break time she suddenly came over to our classroom and said she wanted to go out with me Friday afternoon to a café…" Saito sighed.

"What were you expecting?" Hikawa asked.

"Dunno. Thought she'd go with Arushi – kun. I know Meiru – chan jokingly told Eboshi – kun to be her boyfriend but it ended in nothing. Girls. Too complicated for my taste. That's why hanging around guys is better: we can perfectly understand each other." Saito shrugged.

"The middle feels too good, man." Netto chuckled.

"Middle man?" Hikawa giggled.

"Guess that."

"Lick the base of his neck."

"Oi! Not fair, Saito – niisan!"

"Here I go! Lick!"

"Hah, hah, hah! Stop it! It tickles!"

"Netto – kun's number one weakness: tickling!"

"Stop it, Tooru – kun! Man! Hah, hah, hah!"

"By the way: are you keeping those 2 lions at bay?"

"Enzan and Laika? Yeah. Well. Sometimes we take shifts being the masochist guy to make it fairer. It was about time I taught those 2 what it means to be the masochist." Netto shrugged.

"Fortunately, both Blues and Search Man are most reasonable in that aspect… I'm lucky~!" Saito giggled.

"Yeah, yeah. How is it? About to go?"

"Yeah. Go-go-goggles!"

"From the 3rd gen, huh? You needed those to enter the desert."

"And to eat desserts." Saito made a pun.

"Hah, hah." Netto didn't find it funny.

"Heh, heh!" Hikawa giggled.

"Here I go!"

Saito released thus starting the chain of releases: the group undid the formation so Saito and Hikawa got to their knees next to Netto (Hikawa added beads into Saito and Saito added them to Netto) and began to lick his cock from both sides: Netto shivered and laughed because it apparently tickled.

"It tickles! Man!"

"Too bad." Saito giggled.

"Too good." Hikawa giggled next.

"Which one?" They both asked.

"Oh come on! Hah, hah, hah! It tickles!"

"How about down here?"

"Or up here?"

"Stop it! Hah, hah, hah!"

Saito suddenly began to lick Netto's balls while Hikawa began to lick Netto's cock head: Netto couldn't stop laughing.

"Will ya gimme a break?"

"Summon Break Man!"

"You'll need 1 Sacrifice, though."

"Oh come on! Hah, hah, hah! Here I go!"

"Milk!"

Netto began to spurt out stuff and both guys quickly licked it to then take it into their mouths and savor it: Saito then began to suck Netto's cock while Hikawa stood up and began to kiss Netto to share the flavor with him: Hikawa also rubbed his cock against Netto's waist as well to harden it again: he released and Netto apparently also did so: they broke apart and panted.

"Man! That felt good." Netto laughed.

"I got inspired. By your timid penis – chan." Saito giggled.

"Not a nickname war again…" Netto groaned.

"Too bad and too good?"

"There's no middle point?"

"Too middle?"

"I give up."

"Heh, heh." Hikawa giggled.

"I'd say that's enough for today. Let's wrap up." Saito suggested.

"Fine. We've got homework to do so…"

"Homework Man will bless us." Hikawa giggled.

"Guess that."

The group laughed in a cherry manner…

19:29 PM (Japan Time)…

"… PHEW! I finally shook them off."

"Hard to believe, man."

"Yeah. Life can be odd."

"Out of 15 guys you're the chosen number one?"

"I know! I thought it was a plot by ex-Boss but it doesn't seem like it: it feels too random, too stupid."

"Guess that."

Nelaus got to his house while looking tired and beaten: he sat down on the sofa while Isaac projected with the PET's hologram and hovered over his right shoulder.

"By all the… Some days ago I got scouted by a photographer who wanted me to be a model for some winter season H&M clothing: as a reward I'd get the same set for free. I didn't think much of it: I went to the photo studio, he did the photos, I got the clothes and that was it. And some days ago they began an online poll aimed at girls by posting photos of 15 guys, me included, and asking "Who's the most handsome of them all?"…"

"And out of 15 you ended up being the 1st one and receiving over 80% of the votes… 200 girls voted in total… So… 160 girls across the nation choose you… And 25 of them happened to be on our middle school… Followed by a lot of them who came over from Densan City…" Isaac groaned.

"It's maddening! I get surrounded by them, all asking for my signature when I don't have one yet! I've never had to sign any legal paperwork so I didn't bother to ready one. One thing that ex – _senpai_ rascal could've bothered to teach me, really." Nelaus fumed.

"We had to use the stupid mower thing to drive them away. Makes you want to stay here the whole day. Man."

"Ah, whatever. Just download the newest chapter of ex – Boss' scandal attempt and let's laugh at how lame it'll be."

"Fine. I've got it."

"Let's see. "So! To continue from where I left ya at… Wishing for more yet being denied of it… About time you licked my boots, no?"… Is that how you begin a chapter? Sheesh."

"Lick boots?" Isaac frowned.

"It's always been seen as a humiliation tactic to force others to submit to you, to admit they must submit to you." Nelaus sighed.

"As expected, huh?"

"What were you expecting, anyway? "Well. Thing is, around late 1997, after I'd begun to expand my business into some states in Ameroupe, I got contacted by a woman named Dolores from Brazil and who lived in Arizona. She actually was the head researcher of a top-secret forgotten federal facility where human cloning research was being carried at. Some promising steps had been made but the lack of money and materials had put a halt to any further progress… So she suggested that I finance the research and they would become a private lab."… Hum."

"So that's where she got her hands on the tech." Isaac wasn't too surprised.

"Yeah. "She told me amazing stuff: new techniques (don't ask me the biology details: only she knows them) allowed for the speeded up growth of a fetus from fetus to teenager in about 6-7 months! Yet! We needed to find a way to make them have base knowledge before being born or else we would be spending too much time teaching them everything like a newborn. What to do? Then I got a flash of inspiration! We could implant a chip on their brains that would build up their long-term memories with basic concepts: especially idiom! And very basic concepts. Further teaching would be needed but with such a base in place we estimated that about a year of teaching would suffice."… Hum. Hence why my birthday is in summer: because that was when my body finished growing…" Nelaus calmly realized.

"Yeah. I knew that already." Isaac shrugged.

"Well. "We moved to a secret facility I owned in Aomori Prefecture. I won't tell ya where. Denial play! Tee – heh – heh!"… How brilliant of you, Ex – Boss. Whatever. "So! Once all was ready, we began project "Solid" on September, 1998. The estimated completion date was February, 1999."… So! Mr. Vadous' birthday is in February. So he'll turn 27 next February."

"Thought he was 25. My mistake." Isaac muttered.

"Bah. Don't mind it."

"Of course I don't."

"And Charles was correct: she's using a nickname. And I know where she dug it from."

"Where else? Metal Gear Solid. The game had come out on that same year and she surely played it." Isaac shrugged.

"… "However… I wanted to have a second project be run in a parallel manner. So by December, 1998, we began project "Liquid". The estimated completion date was June, 1999. In the meanwhile I made sure the construction of the "Palace" continued: it was coming up nicely enough and we estimated that it would be ready by January, 1999. Just in time to move both projects there and carry the teaching there, totally isolated from contact with others. We raised Solid to be calm most of the time but also to display anger when angered so as to keep any possible subordinates in line. Yet we didn't want him to be too ambitious either. Ah, yeah. I was forgetting to say something… During growth some genes were altered to cancel their puberty, turn them sterile, and impotent. In this way they would be immune to sexual distractions and be indifferent to any women or men who tried to seduce them."… Hum. But in my case Dr. Lartes partly fixed that yet… I told him I want to remain sterile for a while just in case. You never know." Nelaus calmly muttered.

"Better be on the safe side."

"So that means that ex – _senpai_ will become 27 next year too. I always thought the guy was younger but… Meh."

"Yeah. No big deal."

"Maybe that's because he actually doesn't age, now that I think about it: the guy having turned into a Net Navi and so."

"True."

"… By April, before Liquid was born and while Solid's education continued (I left it on the hands of Marcus most of the time because he had far more patience than I: not like Solid was a slow learner but having to teach him a lot about money, interacting with people and so was not my forte) I got a hold of something that inspired me to undergo a third project. That was by April, 1999. So I talked with Dolores and she gladly helped me prepare project "Solidus" (lame name, you may say, but blame Mr. You – know – who) by May, 1999. The estimated completion time would be December, 1999, since we wanted to try if prolonging the growth another month would bring further stability and could help reduce the amount of time spent teaching."… Ah. So that's Kanou Shade whom the twins talked about from time to time. And I guess what she means by "got a hold of something": maybe she hadn't finished MGS, decided to end it, and heard the talk Ocelot had with Solidus, calling him by name. But we didn't know much about him save that he was THE Mr. President."

"Yeah. Since MGS2: Sons of Liberty wouldn't be ready and sold until Q4, 2001…" Isaac calmly informed.

"… Well… "In the meanwhile, Liquid was born. Unlike Solid we made sure to train him to be totally loyal to us and very ambitious. He would halt at nothing to achieve his goals but never forgetting his loyalty. For security reasons both were led to believe they were unique. None knew of the other's existence. The training proceeded smoothly. With the experience of those 2, training Solidus was easier, even. Since I wasn't too sure about how he should behave I made sure to teach him that there was always a way around obstacles, and that information was power. I told him a lot about listening and surveillance systems, micro-robots included. In some sense, I wanted him to be a spy but a real spy, not a show-off like that stupid 007 who was always screwing around with women. The guy should get some lessons from Jigen Daisuke about how to use a gun, sheesh!"… Who's Jigen Daisuke, Isaac?" Nelaus stopped reading to ask.

"A character of the popular series _Lupin III_... A professional marksman with a 0.3 – second quick draw… And very fast reloading… His favorite weapon is the Smith & Wesson Model 19."

"I see. "Anyway. Back to the important stuff. The business was growing and all was progressing. The 3 of them were confined to 3 different rooms and never knew what happened downstairs. The whole of the year 2000 was spent in their teaching. By early 2001 (I think it was either February or March) we sent each of them to the outside world to go their own ways and achieve some goal. They had recommendation letters and access to several accounts."… Aha."

"In the meanwhile I've sent all "fan" emails to the spam inbox." Isaac dully reported.

"Thanks."

"Don't mind it."

"Anyway… "Solid soon found a group of unique guys: a psychology and nanomachines researcher, Hamlet's arch nemesis, a car repair _otaku_ who'd worked in a repair shop owned by: Jeep _Otaku_. And a _ninja_ wannabe that I'm gonna call _Musou_ Fan. Oh yeah. And he built a high-level Net Navi specialist in gun and sword techniques: Feral – chan."… How stupid. "Liquid began to investigate new techs and soon showed interest in the Cyber World while Solidus seemed to want to control that the clubs under my authority didn't overcome their allocated budget: that was useful to me so I let the guy do as he liked. Solid also began building a large-scale spaceship that would become his HQ, inspired by the Palace. That happened by summer, 2002."… I see. So the Subspace HQ began to be built some years ago."

"My fellows inspired by someone and no – one~… The Bitter Camping Bureau has come… Where's Louis?" A familiar voice joked.

"Cloud Man. Swallow Man is undermining you." Isaac quickly replied.

"Not again! Damn it all. Swallow Ma~n!"

"Good job."

"Meh! The guy's too predictable."

"… "October, 2002. Something happened. Petty Council's Analog Snatcher began to sniff around my businesses: one of my men quarreled with the guy and managed to stab the right hip. I ordered him to bring me that knife and Dolores and I found that there was enough DNA info to undergo a new project. By November we began and we expected it to be done by May, 2003. The name was "_Sengoku_ Mania" because the guy would be a _ninja_ to be a side-kick to _Musou_ Fan."… Who does she mean?"

"Daratsu."

"Daratsu is a clone of Charles? First-timer."

"He doesn't want to talk too much about it, apparently."

"Oh well. Let's not bother him with that, anyway."

"I've blocked 14 calls already."

"Who the hell told me my number?" Nelaus growled.

"Apparently you've got a fan in the police who abused of her post to investigate your register. She got sanctioned already but…" Isaac explained with a sigh.

"Sheesh."

"Sorry."

"You're not to blame, man. The world's gone mad. "That same year I got the idea to undergo yet another project, but this one would be different. I had asked Dolores if halting the growth at a certain age and then letting the body grown naturally for some years in cold sleep would be possible: she argued that it was and like that we could skip the teaching altogether: years of being fed info by the chip into the brain should suffice to allow the project to gain far more complete knowledge. I wanted a backup because I was uncertain of the future. I had a hunch that maybe someday those 3 would fail to come help us if we got into trouble. So we built a secret facility underneath an abandoned Antarctica Indian research outpost named Gondwana."… That's me."

"And me, too."

"… By early 2003, growth began. It ended in summer: the project was 11 at the time and began cold sleep without awakening. For added security we programmed a hi-class Navi with hi-level abilities to be the guy's side-kick and guide in case we couldn't be around to guide him. The Navi entered cold sleep that would be stopped 4 times a year to run a trimester revision of all systems. We programmed everything for the guy to wake up in summer, 2008. Leaving that on place, we returned to our usual businesses. Ah yeah. The project was named "Raiden"…"… Obviously. By then MGS2 was out and she'd obviously played it, too."

"Hmmm? Wait a min. I'm going to let loose the pet."

"Pet? Did we have a pet before?" Nelaus looked up.

"Yeah. Go!"

"Kiryuririri~!"

"KYA~H! It's the Dragon God – sama~!"

"Was that…?"

"Yeah. Rayquaza." Isaac snickered.

"Heh. Good job."

"A lil rip from HGSS. Level 100, Dragon Pulse, Destruction Beam, Extreme Speed, Dragon Claw. All perfect IVs, too." Isaac proudly announced.

"Good. That should teach them not to come back."

"Isaac? It's me, Blues."

"Password, please."

"I know. Who is it? No – one. Just me and you." Blues dully replied.

"Password's alright. What's up?"

"I got a hold that Cloud Man was here."

"Just to troll. Sent the guy to fight Swallow Man."

"Ah. Fine. By the way, those women… Fans of yours?"

"More like annoying stalkers. My pet there sent them running."

"Hum. I see."

"What's up, Ijuuin? Found a way to handle the lack of staff?"

"I'm on it, yeah, but with the old man orbiting around…" Enzan tiredly replied.

"Sorry."

"Don't mind it."

"Did you find any clues?" Isaac asked Blues.

"The Athens office chief of the Committee has gotten a report: Opoulos boldly entered the country using his Greek passport. Greek police didn't know he'd been imprisoned. So they let him in like any other citizen and that was it. They could find his trail up until he stayed in a small Athens hotel but after that he's vanished. That was on the 27th." Blues explained to him.

"He must be using connections there. Or his old FBI license… Speaking of which, did the FBI ever retire him the license?"

"Good point. I hadn't thought about it. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't. Maybe it's because Opoulos had actually retired by then and thus was supposedly no longer an FBI executive…"

"Retired? I thought he wasn't even 50 yet."

"He alleged he'd developed a pulmonary infection that didn't allow him to properly work and that the medical treatment would be long and tiring: but we've found out that was a ruse to go underground and build up Deadly Pandora."

"I see. I guess the villain will mention the guy on the book. Do people still think it's a very well done piece of fiction?"

"Yeah. All reviews agree with that. There are over 100 of them."

"No wonder. With the writing style and the content it was obvious it was gonna cause some furor."

"Obviously."

"Well. Let's go back, Blues."

"Roger, Enzan – sama. See you."

"Yeah. Good luck."

"Thanks."

"See ya, Ijuuin."

"Bye, Nelaus."

"Oh well. Let's finish this chapter. "The rest of 2003 proceeded without too much fuss. All seemed to be going smoothly. The Sengoku Mania guy was sent to Solid's place for teaching and training. Business was good: Solidus always managed to find some idiot that over-spent and thus would be reported to the cops. Liquid seemed to have some ideas on mind but was yet unsure about what he should do so he set out to wander across the world for a while. Solid continued building his UFO. I had to withdraw assets from most of Ameroupe because both the CIA and the FBI had begun to grow suspicious of us. No wonder, following that terrorist attack everyone knows about. I know we're Japanese but by that point any foreigner that did suspicious business could be targeted and detained under the fear of being a contact or a 5th column for foreign terrorists. Dolores moved to Brazil and became head of a plastic surgery clinic for the new riches. She was satisfied that her ambitions had been fulfilled and now only wanted to have a quiet time and relax. I made sure to keep some contact with her: after all it was thanks to her that I had such excellent assets."… Hum. So that must be how Opoulos eventually approached her: during an investigation… "But since this time the explanation felt long, then… I'll leave at here. Will you be able to hold back those masochist impulses before the new one comes out? The denial play keeps on! I'm snickering at ya! Nyah!"... How silly."

"Oh! Poulos. You must be a sinful sinner! Nyah, hah, hah."

"That voice…? Where does it come from, Isaac?"

"A proxy Navi…" Isaac grumbled.

"Ex – Boss. So you dared to show your proxy around here."

"Hmpf! To remind you guys who you're dealing with. Did ya two have a juicy affair already~?" Anaya laughed.

"And what if we didn't?" Nelaus shrugged.

"Che. I overdid it when I told you had to be unimpressed in life. Another thing I screwed up."

"So you're not perfect, huh? About time you admitted it, deposed Queen."

"Nyahlahlahsha~h!" She hissed something undecipherable.

"How about you go broom the yard?" Isaac taunted.

"HMPF!" She played the unimpressed.

"Queen – sama…!" A man's voice whispered in the background.

"Ya be quiet, Marco! This is MY fight!"

"Y-yes! Your Grace." The man gulped.

"Anyway! I'll leave at it here for today. Good luck with the lil girls: and before ya ask I didn't set this up. Luck is your enemy!"

"Whatever the ever. Just go boil your brains and write a poem about your vanity, Ex – Boss." Nelaus shot back.

"Yeah. And your greed and lust." Isaac calmly added.

"Hmpf! I'll be back, you mice… Mark my words! Hah!"

"Gone… with the wind." Isaac made an irony.

"Guess that. Huff. I better finish the homework and go sleep early. Busy week ahead of us, anyway."

_Hmpf… Ex – Boss… You can't run away forever… _


	5. Chapter 5: Pride

**Chapter 5: Pride**

08:58 AM (Japan Time), Friday November the 8th…

"… So? _Monsieur_ Vadous. Any new on our Greek _forban_?"

"There are rumors that he's begun a mercenary business: local mafias are quickly hiring him because they're seemingly short on pawns. But as to whereabouts… The man's always moving up and down every twice or thrice and there's no way to keep track. Dr. Spimer."

"Hmpf… I see."

Vadous, sitting on his armchair, was having a videoconference with a man who sounded French.

The man looked on his late twenties or early thirties.

His hair was combed in a neat manner and it was colored in an orange-like coloring while his eyes' irises were blue.

He had reading glasses on.

From what it could be seen, he seemingly wore a white lab coat over a shirt.

The background showed a metallic room with a nearby desk having some device which apparently was pending assembly.

"I'm trying to optimize the energy core of those "Nibelung" robots that Schneider Inc. developed for Dark Land time ago… It was a good idea to keep one here for study along with a "Bifrost" fighter… We could use them against those bothersome _forbans_… I'd like to see their faces of despair when being overwhelmed by these…" Dr. Spimer snickered.

"Ah. Excellent. They'd deserve it. Truly." Vadous looked amused.

"By the way… Did you see? A list has been "leaked" by someone that contains all of the nicknames Anaya has come up with."

"Yes, I knew. They're so childish. Which proves that Anaya is but a spoiled kid to begin with. Kids will be kids!" He shrugged.

"Good. I don't care how many times we need to tell them but we'll insist over and over again: you WILL pay for your crimes."

"Boss? Sorry to butt in, but I've got a new report. A man that looked like Izono was spotted in Kanazawa City when he got down from a train. CCTV camera imagery analysis is in progress but Colonel Talos believes it's highly probable it's our man… Or, otherwise…"

"Otherwise?"

"A proxy hired to disguise as him and do that: the proxy doesn't need to know who sent him the instructions or why, just that he's got to do it because he's got no other choice… And to throw us into a cul-de-sac which surely will be waiting for us in Kanazawa." Omega came in.

"Hum. I see. As expected of Colonel Talos… He's got a sharp instinct for these things."

"Of course. Well. I'm going to do another patrol. If I find that gateman rascal again I'm going to catch the guy."

"Don't overdo it. If all of them come out at once…"

"I know. It's the point we brought up the other day. But I'm pretty sure that those 2 aren't in Melbourne. We've withdrawn the surveillance some distance away just in case and began one in another spot to give the impression we're taking shots in the dark." Omega shrugged.

"Good. Keep it up. And don't try to stalk Bapgei either or we'll lose our only lead to Twilight. Have the armored rascals shown up again, by the way?" Vadous asked.

"Yeah. Prism Man had to battle Swallow Man in Hikone City and Needle Man fought Cloud Man in Matsuyama City. Both pulled out after a while despite that they no heavy damage. They surely aim to frustrate us again and again."

"Fine. Saw that coming, too. You know the drill."

"Yeah. See ya, Doc."

"_Au revoir_."

"Hey. Boss. Everything alright?"

"Yeah, Kir Osh. What's up?"

"I'm going out for a while. I need some fresh air."

"Alright. Enjoy."

A guy stepped in after Omega had left.

This guy seemed to be around Vadous' age: he had blonde hair and green eyes irises.

He wore a simple brown leather jacket, jeans with a brown leather belt and black sneakers.

He currently had both hands stuffed on the jacket's pockets.

"Shouldn't you pick a coat? It's starting to get cold."

"Hmmm… Guess that. I don't want to get a cold either so… I'll be going, Boss. Later."

"Later."

Kir Osh also stepped out while Dr. Spimer barely repressed a yawn: Vadous noticed but didn't say anything.

"Oh crap. It's almost midnight. I better go rest. But I think that another one or two days should suffice."

"Good. But don't push it either, Doctor."

"I know."

The transmission ended and Vadous impatiently tapped the armrests while he sighed and leant backwards.

"… I can't shake off the nerves… I fear like someone will make the connection…"

"Boss… Still going over that?"

"Lartes? Yeah. I can't shake it."

"Paranoia won't help us."

"I know! But I can't help it!"

"You need some more rest."

Lartes came in while having some documents on a clipboard which he glanced as he talked with Vadous (since Vadous had turned the chair to face the screens again): he looked a bit annoyed, even.

"Going over my nanomachines history again?" He sighed.

"You know it's for your good. That's why you hired me."

"I'd forgotten."

"How unlike you."

"Irony? Huff. Not in the mood for that."

"Now, now." Lartes tried to calm him down.

"Fine. I need more rest, then?" He sighed in defeat.

"Yeah. At least 7 hours a day. You've only been having 4."

"Huff. Fine."

"Remember that Omega can handle the commands too. Or Kir Osh or me…" Lartes reminded him.

"I know, I know. I'm going to have some rest for a while, then. Let's hope nothing important happens in the meanwhile. I'm going to tell Dragon to prepare some decent green tea or else I'm gonna get annoyed. Dragon Hell and the only thing about dragons is that dragon cake…" Vadous stood up and stretched.

"Oh no. Dragon also draws dragon pictures and he's got an art-book filled with them. He also collects photos of ancient dragon paintings and of dragons in tales, games, movies and so."

"Really? And I never knew?"

"I was always the one trying to start some conversation with the guy: we hired him around early 2004, right?"

"Yeah. He answered to a simple advert I did about "Wanted: discrete cook. Skill: simple. Salary: high. Interested apply to…"… And I put the address of a house I used by then."

"And Dragon was the only who showed up. He always seemed to be on another world but since he fulfilled the requirements…" Lartes seemingly recalled next.

"I know. And discrete sure has been. Never telling anyone about this place or what he was doing…"

"Nowadays, with Trill onboard, he's got company… Trill always wants to hear some tale and Dragon always has one… But Dragon's defects are rather… annoying. Starting by the banners."

"What's the latest?" Vadous rolled his eyes, expecting something lame.

"According to Omega… "Lao Tsu once said: you must find the way."…"

"Huh? That doesn't sound lame."

"There's more. "And to find it one's head must depart for the world beyond."…"

"What the heck does that mean?"

"That you gotta behead yourself."

"By all the damned frigging… Not that _Tintin_ scene again."

"I know. It gets tiresome. I'm going to put something else and hope it's decent…" Lartes sighed.

"Dragon…! Get down to Earth!"

"Easier said than done. Especially if we're in _orbit_." Lartes ironically replied.

"I get the irony. Huff. Rest! Or else I'm gonna go mad."

"Yeah. We all need rest or else we'll collapse…"

18:28 PM (Japan Time)…

"… So? What did you want to talk about?"

"This!"

"Heck."

"Oh that face! Priceless!"

"I can't stand trolls."

"But this is SO good…!"

"Earth, swallow me whole…"

"Same feeling, Saito – kun…"

"I know, Blood, I know…"

"So? Reddie – sama? Any pretenders?"

"Do you need to know that to survive?"

"My. How cold."

Saito was having a cup of coffee with Karazawa inside of a café somewhere: he looked bored and uninterested and she suddenly showed him a very large list of names which made him groan and grimace: Blood Shadow sighed and didn't look impressed at Scherezade's teasing attempt.

"The "Supermen Wannabes"! Amaterasu's neophyte! Know-it-all _aniki_! N, the Negative! I, the Illusionist! John Doe! Hexagon Maniac! Spoiled Kid! Legendary Swordsman Wannabe! Spoiled Soldier! Legendary Sniper Wannabe! Goemon Ishikawa half-brother! Purple Masked Idol! Fatty Grey Moustache! Skinny Bureaucrat! Cyber Snatcher! Lucky Luke!"

_Those being the whole of the Net Saviors… Know-it-all _aniki_? Me? That your best shot, Anaya? Sheesh._

"Oho! "Mad School"! Sakura Maniac! Rhapsody in Pink! Spoiled Heiress! Pennyworth the 13th! Ookarada! Not So Brave Man! Rotten Apple! Dr. Zhivago Fan! Magic Girl Wannabe! Far East Princess! Watery Lad!"

"Please…" Saito groaned.

"Huh…? Wait a min…" Scherezade frowned.

_Uh-oh. Now she's going to realize those nicknames mean real people._

"Starry Fella! Hah, hah, hah!"

"Hey, wait! That "Far East Princess"… That's me!"

"HUH?"

"And you're the Magical Girl Wannabe!"

"HUH? What part of me is magical?"

"Mana is a concept often used in fantasy RPGs." Blood Shadow drily told them.

"T-then…? "Mad school" is the school? But I feel like some names are missing… Or wait… Aha-hah! Senior! Ya gotta be one of those "Supermen wannabes"!"

"And what if I am? Will that help you clear the exams, Miss?"

"Wha~t? Oh come on! How dull!"

"You shouldn't have bothered to call me over just to troll me."

"Hmpf! You're not going anywhere 'till I'm finished!"

"Sheesh."

"Oho! "Vile's Club"!"

_That being us?_ Blood Shadow inwardly groaned.

_Who the heck is Vile, anyway?_ Saito inwardly grumbled.

"V, Vile! Hamlet's arch nemesis! Jeep _Otaku_! _Musou_ Fan! _Sengoku_ Mania! Feral – chan! Stupid! Blessed Shot! Deathly Hiker! Princess Wannabe! Thrill!"

_Stupid being Sigma's nickname? Sheesh. Blessed Shot? Me? It's so illogical to begin with it makes me stir up with anger. Sheesh._

_Deathly Hiker? Dragon – san? He wouldn't even hurt a fly._

_The "Laertes" joke is overused!_

"The "Petty Council"! The Foreigner! Blonde – sama! Mamma Mia! Diehard Scott! Clay Gong! Analog Snatcher! College of Davidson! Paultry! Capt'n Falcon! Donkey Kong!"

"Wait a min… Some of these names appeared in the latest chapter of that new series… Does that mean they're based off real people?" Scherezade realized.

"That for real?"

"But then, would that mean that… All that's told is there… It isn't fiction but reality?"

"No way! Clones don't exist! There was that Dolly sheep thing years ago but that's it! You've seen too much _Star Wars_! Go date Serenade and have some romance, cutie." Karazawa laughed.

"OI!" She got annoyed.

"Oh boy." Both guys sighed.

"Anyway! More!"

"More?" Saito groaned.

"Hah! "Nicely Going"! Tyrannus! Heels! Frozen Man! Cloudy Man! Musou Man! Sky Man! Cosmic Man! Za Etag Man!"

_She even made parodies of her loyal pawns? I wonder what will Twilight say when he reads these. Maybe he'll feel betrayed? Nah. No way. _Saito inwardly wondered.

"No need to wonder. Bapgei let out to Kataka that Twilight felt out of place, confused and puzzled." Blood Shadow whispered taking profit of another quarrel between the two girls.

"Ah. I see."

"You go broom the bedroom!" Scherezade fumed.

"Cha go mop the staircase!"

"Who is gonna?"

"Cha _aneki_!"

"I've got no _aneki_!"

"Oh boy."

"Anyway! I'm not done yet, Senior!"

"Hmpf. Stubborn, aren't we?" Saito played unimpressed.

"Yeah! "The Bureau"! Big Boss! Diehard Wesker! Ruthless Vladimir! Crackling Volgin! Lil Colt Colonel! Decreasing Hysteria! Only _Aho_! Swamp! Pigeon! Hyena!"

_That being the Committee… Decreasing Hysteria? Sheesh. It's getting worse and here I thought it couldn't get worse than this._

_Someone save our sanities. _Blood Shadow inwardly cursed.

"Oho! "Doma"! There's a gang emulating Yu-Gi-Oh! Dartz! Grayish Bulk! Raffy! Halberd Man! Alee – tan! Lil Grandson! Bikin' _Otaku_! Armor Deck! Nyah, hah, hah, hah! How funny!"

_That's Rama… Anderson must be about to blow Anaya to pieces if he's heard of this…_

"Oh? Seer – chan! Sorceress – chan! Grindy! Ol' Fashion Man!"

_The former Rama members… Prophetess and Witch cooperated with Anaya in the summer incident and such those nicknames aren't so offensive… Hmpf._

"Ultimate Senpai – chan! Fang – chan! Beauty – chan! Burnin' Heart – chan! IQ – sama! Ah! The narrator of the story! Secretary! Jade Panther! Dark Prometheus! Secret Emporium! Royal! Resal! Evil Genius Scientist! CHE! Baseball! And that's it! You LOVED them!" Karazawa suddenly leant forward while snickering.

"Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure." Both drily replied.

"Tee, heh, heh."

"Hum." Scherezade still looked mistrusting.

"What's with ya?"

"Maybe… It uses real characters as a basis but the tale is indeed fiction by mixing in fictional characters too… Somewhat complicated…"

_Well. As long as she thinks that's it…_ Blood Shadow didn't seem to be surprised by her thinking.

"Bah! Don't bother over it. It's fun."

"Maybe so."

"_Tsundere_ Princess popped out?"

"Oh yeah? Go broom the classroom."

"Hah! A gal isn't gonna do something so mundane!" She laughed.

_Did she really transfer because she had to or she came over to try to laugh at people? _Saito inwardly grumbled.

"I'm sorry but I fail to see the point of sticking around any longer. I've got homework." Saito stood up.

"Eh?"

"I'm going to pay for my coffee but you must pay for yours, Miss. And don't bother to call me up again. Good – bye."

Saito calmly paid for his coffee and left to Karazawa's disbelief given her face: Scherezade snickered and inwardly giggled.

"The misfortune of love strikes back?"

"Cha be quiet!" She fumed.

"Quiet Girl will make us be quiet."

"How lame."

Scherezade kept on giggling while Karazawa fumed…

11:11 AM (Iceland Time)…

"… Phew. This should suffice. Let's hope that by spreading a rumor that Nelaus – kun was chosen by the company because they were eager to sell those clothes and not because a lot of girls and women voted him. That should stop that fan-fever. Poor young man: being bothered to no end by those… Sheesh."

A woman was working with a Sony VAIO laptop inside of a room somewhere.

The woman was on her late twenties and appealed to be a bit shorter of a meter and eighty, maybe a meter and seventy five.

She had long hair which grew until the base of the neck which she'd dyed silver and her eyes' irises were colored blue.

She sported a greenish shirt with long sleeves, a brown leather belt, jeans and white sneakers.

The room was small and had a bed, a desk, an adjacent bathroom: a nearby bookcase contained some books.

"Phew. Alright. Hmm? The chat? Mary again? Sheesh. Go soda, Mary! I'm busy!" She typed into the chat window.

"Ann! Don't tell me. Admiring the beauty of my disciple Jasmine?"

"Mary. Stop meddling around if you may." Someone else joined the chat.

"Jess! Bless a Jess!"

"That pun's old! And my name's Jessica!"

"Oh well. How about I tell you about someone and no-one?" She teased.

"What's that?"

"… "Well! About time, eh? You must be about to break down to pieces by now, aren't you? Confess, you piece of merchandise! I'm so gonna make you lick my footprints next. Mwah, hah, hah."…" Mary quoted something all of a sudden.

"Oh sheesh." Both women complained.

"What? Not interested? Fine. I'll go read with my disciple Jasmine."

"Don't try to encourage her to be a sadist, Mary! Or else Dr. Spimer is going to get angry for REAL." Jessica warned.

"Don't worry, my bless jess. I'm in charge of the situation. Bye!"

Ann fumed and glanced outside of the room into a corridor to see a shadow run past while giggling loud enough to be heard: she looked indifferent as she closed the door again and sat back in front of the computer.

"We know she used to take part in _amateur_ _dominatrix_ in college times but luckily enough she quit years ago. And Jasmine knows her place, anyway. She might like to tease but it never goes beyond that. We need to put emphasis on her, Ann." Jessica typed.

"I totally agree."

"We've still got no clues about where that bitch and that guy are at?"

"Zero. All eyewitness accounts were innocent unrelated proxies who'd been paid to pose as them somewhere and lead our efforts into cul-de-sacs." Ann replied.

"Che. And she goes and writes this sans the least feeling of guilt. If I was in charge of that prison then I'd pressure the bitch with all reports about the victims of that madness. I'd love to see how that smug attitude begins to fall apart. But don't get me wrong, Ann. This isn't sadism. It's punishment for that bitch's crimes." Jessica explained.

"I totally agree with you. Oh well. I'm going to the shooting range: do you want to join me? You never know when we'll have to go out into a field mission." She invited.

"Sure. Let's go: some exercise will do us well."

"OK. Meet you there in 5."

Ann sighed but then managed to force as smile…

11:19 AM (Iceland Time)…

"… Jasmine~… It's me, your precious CO!"

"Captain, ma'am! Yes, ma'am. Please come in."

"Delighted. _Hi, darling_!"

"Welcome, ma'am."

The woman named Mary seemed to be about a meter and eighty tall and she could be past her mid-20s or close to her 30s.

She had platinum blonde hair which she'd collected into a ponytail and brown eye irises.

She sported a brown shirt with long sleeves, a brown leather belt, jeans and black heeled shoes.

"Did you tease the bad boys?"

"I tried but they're getting skeptical."

"Oh my. What a pity."

"Yes, ma'am."

Jasmine was a girl on her late teens or early 20s.

She could be over a meter and eighty tall and had short black hair.

She wore a black long-sleeved t-shirt along with black jeans, fingerless black gloves and black sneakers.

She also sported a pair of sunglasses over her eyes.

She also wore a utility belt with two knife cases and two gun pouches.

"Let's go: I've got interesting material."

"Please be my guest. Ma'am."

"Sure. And we'll then see "something"."

"Interesting, ma'am."

Mary stepped inside of the sparsely decorated room and sat on the edge of the bed: Jasmine did the same and sat down at her right as Mary revealed a notebook computer she'd been carrying around for a while already.

"… "Fine. Let's get to the business. The year is 2004. The mighty year of the unexpected triple release. Y'know. Those lil things that fit in a ball. We got a leaf, a fire and an emerald."… Oh my. The remake versions and _Emerald_, was it?" Mary giggled.

"Yes, ma'am."

"… "And, by the way, later on that year we got the highly-expected "Snake Eater"… That was cool. I liked how the strong character was a woman warrior named "The Boss" that was recognized as the mother of special ops! Finally! A feared strong woman! I liked that! But I'm getting off-trail here, my pitiful prey. What I mean to say is… A guy named Jade Panther who worked in the FBI managed to discover my identity but since he was interested in starting an underground business he approached me with the offer of being a trustee. I got excited and actually mentioned it to my Godfather, whom I still saw from time to time."… Hum. I see." Mary looked amused.

"I also found "The Boss" to be cool."

"Of course. And that idea to exploit Big Boss' life was cool: we finally got to know more about the man we faced in the original games for the MSX2… "By that year's September, though, old man Wily (whom I'd had an eye on for a while, expecting the guy to stir up some ruckus) began to get on the move. The WWW campaign began… and I was disappointed. A mere civilian Net Navi was proving to be capable to standing up to them. Then THE Legendary Swordsman Wannabe got involved too. The second guy was to be expected, but for the civilian guy to get so far… The N1 Grand Prix showed me, though, that the civilian had limits. Yet the guy's Operator, Amaterasu's Neophyte, was an interesting prey to add to my personal pet collection. But I needed time: too much public attention on the guy meant I needed to wait for the hype to cool down."… Ah. I think I know who she means."

"Isn't it obvious? Ma'am."

"Guess that. "However… The happening at the climax of the N1 Grand Prix impressed me as well. Who'd said there was such a Navi with such destructive potential? I ended up figuring old man Wily was after that to begin with… But it wouldn't be easy for the old man to get his hands on that Sarcophagus Man. I managed to sneak a spy program into the occupied Science Labs to monitor what was happening. So much struggle and drama! I liked it. It surprised me that the civilian deleted at the Grand Prix was rebuilt but should've seen it coming. And what a surprise, too, that Sarcophagus Man, being prideful and all blew his hide up to drag Wily with him to Hell. The WWW was over and things calmed down. But I began to notice something unusual happening in my domains: several locales had been raided. Yet, checking their numbers, they hadn't gone over the allocated budget. That meant that someone was typing the cops: some ally of justice wannabe. Maybe it was Analog Snatcher and the Petty Council."… Petty Council? Oho."

"How lame." Jasmine sighed.

"My. "I tried to use the world trip of the sub-champion as a chance but my overseas agents ended up meeting trouble after trouble. Like in Heaven's City where they stumbled upon Indian Guy's gang who couldn't even stand seeing them. I tried to contact my old friend Madam Money but I only managed to get through to an idiotic employee of hers who actually cut the call thinking I was a wannabe. THE JERK! In King Land that Zappin' guy got in the way with his hallucinations and all. In Namaste I had the decrepit WWW remains get in the way 'long with the Crazy School gang. I gave up and decided to wait for a chance. But trouble ensued. Some guys named "Gospel" popped out all of a sudden and began to create a lot of noise again. Too much public attention again. Resigned, I killed the time trying to find each and every secret of MGS3. I gotta admit that I fell for the illusion that old man Magnets was the boss."…"

"Everyone did so. He always seemed to be so omnipresent that it really gave off that vibe." Jasmine admitted.

"You 3 investigated them back then, no?"

"Yes, by Colonel Morgan's orders. But all info pointed to Gauss Magnets and only Gauss Magnets."

"I see. No wonder."

"… "Reports by Liquid of a mysterious Navi in the Cyber World that seemed to wander with no purpose and sometimes absorbed data picked me. That Navi had an odd feeling to him. I told Liquid to further investigate while I saw more and more locales collapsing and some of my men captured as well. I was totally convinced the Petty Council was behind that and tried to place a bounty on their heads yet it didn't work because they had some almighty reputation or some crap. Men. And then they say they've got the damned GUTS. What guts? Is this why they've repressed us across millennia? Because they wanted to SHOW OFF? DAMNED MORONS!"… Whoa. What bad mood, truly."

"As expected, ma'am."

"… "One day by December I got urgent news from Liquid. Some gigantic wolf-like thing had shown up and it was beginning to delete Internet sites on its wake. I also learnt that Gospel wanted that wandering Navi which they called Forte out of their way. My hunch was correct: if Gospel saw it as a threat then it had to have some potential. But Liquid couldn't figure out where the heck the guy came from. And in the meanwhile, I got a hold that Magnets had been a decoy altogether and old man Wily was alive and pulling the strings. The Cyber World seemed doomed and that annoyed me because it was a good means to do business. I was about to order Liquid to turn Wily into food for fishes when that guy showed up again and began to display such a horrific scene that left me frozen, for once. Who'd said such a small guy could do something as brutal as swallow up the whole of the Cyber World's data save for itself? Even Liquid was stunned, he later admitted. Thankfully, that rampage was stopped somehow and old man Wily was done for. But since it was already December and all I decided to wait a lil bit more."…"

"That truly was terrific."

"Yeah, I know. Luckily they stopped it somehow."

"What does it say next?"

"Hmmm… "2005 began. I began preparations for my plan myself, not trusting any pawn. I decided that I would wait for a chance: Liquid had prepared something that might help me get one. I know it sounds vague but that's how he told me. I prepared a squad of some of my underlings and waited. I left some orders behind just in case something happened to me: Liquid could take care of telling me where to go and what to do and the guy could begin the training in the meanwhile. I got a hold of 2 new Net Navis roaming around: and they seemed to belong to Solid. I thought he was just gathering info for something so I didn't pay much attention to that. By late February, though, something happened. Something terrible, truly terrible!"… Aha-hah!" Mary snickered.

"You doomed. _Owata_." Jasmine snickered too.

"… "The Palace suddenly went berserk, ignited the jets, deployed the re-entrance shield and landed in a spot of Japan… We were boarded by none other than the Delta Force! And they brought us onboard a secret CIA flight to New Orleans! To be quickly trialed and sentenced to life imprisonment in a New Orleans brig! I, the mighty Ice Queen, had been deposed! What the hell had happened?"… Oho. I didn't know that. It'd seem Mr. Vadous and the Council of Armies along with Dr. Spimer convinced them it was better to put them in an Ameroupe prison for added security…" Mary looked intrigued.

"I see."

"… "Liquid soon managed to drop by using some tech he stole from Nebula to freely warp around the world. He told me what had really happened: Solid and Solidus had secretly rebelled, formed alliances behind my back, and brought me down! You damned mice: I gave you life and that's how you thank me? Ungrateful mice! But at least I still had Liquid there. But he couldn't do much yet. The traitor mice were after his neck and he still lacked power or resources. I ordered him to hide and if he got a chance to get the prey I was after: he might be able to use them as bargain chip. Liquid obeyed but promised to report from time to time: and I began to boil my brains in the meanwhile."… Heh! Boil brains, eh?"

"So it'd seem."

"… "I'd heard tales about how prisoners with contacts and influences could get stuff from the outside bypassing security and by acting in gangs even the rent-a-cops didn't dare to stand up to them for fear of being overwhelmed. So, Liquid helped established some contacts and lines and I soon became the Big Boss of the women wing. That gave me some much needed comfort: even in that shameful state I still had power and could rule and was the Ice Queen. By March, Liquid told me that that Forte guy was indeed alive and he'd stirred up a lil ruckus but also helped bust Nebula. Unlike what I thought, it wasn't old man Wily but his foster son, a fella named Regal. Nebula had had a woman agent named Yuriko that interested me because she was clever, ruthless and had brains to use her resemblance to that prey's teacher to lure him into a trap twice. With them out of the way, though, things got quieter again. Despite Liquid's attempts and my squad's attempts, Forte, the cops and Solid got in the way of my plots. The best chance vanished but at least we had managed to make of Forte a pawn of ours without the guy realizing. The guy could handle the training instead and then we'd take over."… I'd heard of that, yeah."

"Yes. Forte's behavior after the Gospel campaign turned so different because of Twilight who influenced his subconscious."

"… "Summer soon arrived and good news came. Forte had created an accomplice named Shirakami. The kid took over the surviving "Darkloids" after busting a guy named Laser Man who'd kicked out the previous boss, Shade Man. Solid began to turn more noticeable so Liquid couldn't be too obvious since he was still gathering power. Summer progressed and one day something amusing happened: those 2 managed to use a chance to pick both and had they undergo intense 24-hour training. They were found and repelled but it didn't matter: the seeds had been laid and they would remain. At last: I won!"… How selfish. And you sing victory too soon, you ugly bitch."

"Truly, ma'am. This is why we had to stop them."

"I know, dear, I know. Huff. What else is to read?"

"Allow me. "However, something happened. An accident involving some complicated experiment caused those 2 to blow up and be deleted by pure accident so all attention went back to Liquid: apparently Solidus, on the background, had tipped Solid off that Liquid had lured those 2 to behave like that to begin with. So Liquid came to see me and said he needed a long time to undergo a long trip around the world to gain materials, power and expertise. I authorized him and he promised to come back with enough power to make the traitor mice shudder in front of it. I was sure of it and the excitement kept me in a good mood from then onwards. But since it's gotten pretty long then I'll stop here. More denial play: my specialty followed by the whip! You better start shivering in fear! And boil your brains, you traitor mice! I'm so gonna bury you lot 100 feet under one day! Nyah!"… Boasting…"

"Leads to nowhere. Oh well. Guess I'll join the gals at the shooting range: how about cha come over, dear?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Good girl. That's my disciple!"

"Thank you, ma'am."

Both giggled and came out into the corridor: they headed down it and soon reached a door with the banner "shooting range": they stepped inside yet there was no – one.

"Oh my. They've already ended. Let's see their scores. Ann: shot 15 rounds with an accuracy of 89.7%... Jess: 15 rounds too but 82.2% accuracy… Jess has never been too good at accuracy. She still gets too nervous. She shouldn't! They're tranquilizer guns like the one Snake used when he infiltrated the _Discovery_ tanker." She muttered as she looked at a results board.

"Hmmm? Email? Your Number One Admirer? Who? Photo? What's this, Chinese? A banner?" Jasmine was checking her Link PET.

"Can't read Chinese for the glory of my aunt." Mary ironically muttered.

"Let's try auto-translate…"

"It's worth a try."

"… This is lame. "Something shall delude the traveler and they shall find themselves being prey of "it". Before they know it they shall crawl across the ground like the snake they are."… I've heard of this! Dragon Hell, the Subspace cook… And his lame banners."

"Oh dear. It'd seem he got fooled again. And Anaya wrote that: no doubt about that. Maybe she remembered about us and decided to mock us and laugh at it." Mary fumed.

"So it'd seem, ma'am."

"Not "seem," Jasmine. It's that bitch's goal."

"Speaking of the devil… Encrypted call coming in… What do I do?"

"Gimme that. Anaya: it's you, right? I'm Mary Troniat, Capt'n!"

"Hmpf! So you're the exile." Anaya taunted.

"I was but an _amateur_ to begin with." Mary was hardly impressed.

"Hmpf! Too bad. You showed promise."

"Oh yeah? I don't give a crap for that. Go tag with Mine Fujiko and steal some treasure or another."

"Hmpf! I gotta admit that Mine Fujiko is a strong gal who manages to trick those men she sticks around with… And others… Heh. Her "friends" will soon come to deliver hammers and blows!"

"I'm SO impressed, Anaya. That your best shot?"

"Of course not. But got no time for exiles. Next time I'll turn that lil girl into an excellent lioness. Look forward to it! Nyah, hah, hah."

"Ran away, the bitch… Whatever. We'll try to analyze the encryption in case it provides some clue or another…"

"We won't let them get away with it, ma'am."

"Of course not, Jasmine… Get ready, ugly! I'm coming for ya! Hah!"


	6. Chapter 6: Tagging & Repelling

**Chapter 6: Tagging & Repelling**

06:36 AM (Utah Time), Monday November the 11th…

"… Greetings!"

"Ah. Monitor. It has been a while."

"I found this Reclaimer on the way."

"Ah. Colonel… Was it?"

"Yeah. Xon' Edos. I just wanted to ask you something."

"Ask."

Guilty Spark had come to a Cyber World somewhere that seemed to be decorated to give the impression you were on outer space given the images of stars and galaxies in the background: he'd brought Colonel along and was talking to a Navi named Xon' Edos.

Xon' Edos looked about a meter and eighty tall and bronze was the main color of his body with some white spots.

The drawing of a planet was engraved on his helmet's forehead.

His eyes' irises were purple and looked calm.

He had two triangular wings (currently folded) with grooves drawn on it and colored bronze.

These same grooves repeated on the rest of his body.

He didn't have any emblems on his chest or in the helmet's ear pads

"This "Past Tunnel" you created… Is there a real purpose to it?"

"Good question. It is a trial."

"Trial?"

"Do not fret. It is intended to test how far a Network civilization's technology can reach. If it is capable of controlling the Time-Space distortions and if it is capable of stabilizing this tunnel."

"Ah. I see."

"I am but an explorer. My mission is but to catalog. And when the time comes, to advice. But no more. I can defend myself or my vehicle but that is as far as I can do. I mean no harm. We are scouts."

"I see. I just felt curious that you bothered to create this: I thought there was more to it and that it wasn't just to hide your craft."

"I know Duo did the same on another Time – Space: Omega gave me the reports that man, Kanou Shade, had written while investigating the activities of Twilight there."

"Yeah. I read them too. On a personal level, of course. The Army doesn't know this exists. Only someone else apart from me and Colonel Barrel knows: Dr. Wily. His knowledge was necessary to build a system so that I can enter this tunnel and explore it."

"At least there are no odd paradoxes here."

"I know."

"Reclaimers… There is some noise on the outside."

"Noise? Signal noise?" Colonel asked.

"There seem to be a lot of guests."

"Lot of guests?" Colonel frowned.

"How should I put it like…?"

"Let us see the sensors… By the stars!"

"A-an army! It's huge!" Colonel gasped.

"What are these ugly things?"

"Hmmm… Orcs? Wait. Orcs… Those flags… Those gigantic mammoth – like creatures… The Mordor Army?"

"Mordor?" Xon' Edos asked.

"A fictional nation in a fictional work that wants to rule the world…"

"Hmpf. Twilight." Xon' Edos deduced.

"Who else? It's a complete rip-off from the _Lord of the Rings: Return of the King_ movie." Colonel grumbled.

"They seem to have a weapon." Spark pointed out.

"Some kind of hammer… And they surely intend to use it against the main gate to destroy it." Colonel analyzed.

"So Twilight has gotten desperate at last?"

"Or could it be a distraction: he might be trying to get inside. Maybe the fool thinks there's a weapon here."

"There are not. This craft only has the core, the engines, the databanks and the communications equipment."

"Fine."

"Wait a moment. I shall call for help as well. Reclaimer?"

"What now, Spark?" Someone replied through the radio.

"We are being attacked."

"Who is being attacked?"

"Reclaimer Colonel and Reclaimer Xon' Edos."

"Twilight?"

"So it would seem."

"Where?"

"The Past Tunnel."

"Hum. How do I get there? Normal Navis can get in, anyway?"

"I can." Spark reminded him.

"Good point. Well. I'll warn the Time – Space Tower scientists that I come to assist. I'll try to get there ASAP but I've got to come from Scotland, as you know."

"Acknowledged."

"What do we do, Xon' Edos? Is there a way to come out without opening the gate?" Colonel asked.

"Of course. Here you have: a portal." Xon' Edos aimed his arm forward and a white portal formed.

"Good. I'll hit their back. Don't you have some defenses?"

"Very crude."

"Really?"

"I say "very crude" because it is but weapon Viruses: cannons and Vulcan guns that I gathered en masse. The outer shell is supposed to be the main defense. I always thought that our designers were a bit _naïve_ in that aspect. Unfortunately enough." He sighed.

"Hum. Alright. Better that than nothing, I guess. There I go!"

"Spark? I'm on my way: I found an optical fiber lane so I might be there in less than 5 minutes."

"Acknowledged."

"Defenses: activate."

"Good. I'll take their back. Monitor! Scan the insides: Twilight might be trying to get inside."

"Roger."

Colonel jumped into the portal while Xon' Edos interacted with a holographic screen that displayed a graph of all enemy units: there was a loud rumbling sound that echoed inside of the craft: some unknown glyphs flashed red on the screen but they surely meant to warn of some danger.

"By the stars! It has a plasma sphere around it! At this rate the gate shall be damaged heavily and it may yield… If it lasts more than 150 seconds! Twilight has not been wasting time, by the stars." Xon' Edos cursed.

"Insofar… There are no enemy signatures." Spark reported.

"Huff, huff… Luckily I had a Dash Condor else…! Who's the moron that began to build an intersection without warning? I almost got sent to Baja California instead!" The Navi on his way there cursed.

"Maybe Twilight did it to try to impede reinforcements." Colonel replied to him through a common radio frequency.

"Wouldn't surprise me."

"Hmpf." Xon' Edos wasn't impressed.

"They're very frail but the numbers make it hard to advance in a noticeable manner." Colonel grumbled.

"I'll be there in about 1 minute… I just got permission from the tower to come inside…"

"Alright. Your abilities should be able to wipe a lot of them in one hit and clear a way to that damned hammer thing before it destroys the main gate…" Colonel told the Navi.

"Roger. I'm jumping in… There I see you. Can you see me, Xon' Edos?"

"I can. You were Annihilator Man, is that correct?"

"Correct."

Xon' Edos opened a secondary screen that displayed the new Navi that had come to help them out.

Annihilator Man's face was colored in a teal brown color and his eyes' irises were a mix of purple and black.

His helmet's forehead had an eight-pointed black and white jewel set on it: three purple stripes travelled from behind to the front.

The Navi was colored white with some black spiral patterns travelling up the arms and legs.

He had two gun-like objects colored black and white respectively and connected to something on his back by thick tubes.

His hands had purple octahedron-shaped patterns on top of them.

His emblem was the _Kanji_ _hametsu_ (annihilation) colored white and set against a gray background plus having a purplish edge.

His feet's fingers ended in claw-like extensions.

He seemed to be close to two meters tall.

"Give me a few seconds… Put on a Barrier…"

"Roger."

Annihilator Man's guns' glowed and they began to project extremely thin beams of energy towards the insides of an almost invisible sphere only a few centimeters tall: they fused into a gray mass that began to glow and Annihilator Man stopped feeding it: he then opened a hole and shot the mass in the form of a beam that made contact with one of the Orcs: a flash ensued and blinding white ring of energy expanded from there as the Orc was deleted and several more enemies were engulfed on that destructive radius: Colonel was protected by the Barrier was largely unaffected by it yet the ring expanded again and again every time it made contact with an enemy: Colonel jumped skywards to allow the wave to properly expand: it began to lose force but Annihilator Man had readied another attack in the meanwhile and the waves kept on expanding: Colonel rushed forward as the waves wiped enemies behind him and occasionally jumped over them.

"I can hold another 80 seconds." Xon' Edos warned.

"Plenty of time. Over 88% of them are gone. In less than 15 seconds I'll reach the hammer thing."

"Come not between the Nazgûl and its prey!" A voice challenged.

"Witch-King of Angmar, huh. Fine. Show me what you can do."

"Foolish human! I shall destroy each of your bones!"

"That their best speech?" Xon' Edos ironically wondered.

"Guess so." Annihilator Man was hardly impressed.

"I found them! Twilight! Looping around!" Spark reported.

"Hum. Hiding the entrance to the core was a good idea indeed. It makes them wander in circles." Xon' Edos muttered.

"Annihilator Man! The hammer!" Colonel commanded over the radio in the meanwhile.

"Roger. Take that!"

"Impossible! Grond, the Underground Hammer!" The Witch-King of Angmar gasped.

"Screen Divide!"

"Foolish mortal!"

"Out of my way."

"Allow me. Annihilator Beam!"

"Impossible~! UGRA~H! MY LORD!"

"Come in. Let us go hunt the true fool."

"Delighted."

"Let's go."

Both Navis got inside through the portal and the trio floated deeper in to then spot a figure floating around and circling.

"That is as far as you come."

"Damn it all."

"You won't run this time."

Twilight had gained Navi-like armor over his body.

He wore a helmet with a mouth guard activated: his eyes' irises were visible and it could be seen that they were colored crimson red.

His chest emblem consisted on just two shades of black and white split by a horizontal grey line.

He had two curious shoulder pads which were shaped as two split halves of a diamond.

His main body's color was navy blue although the forearms and his boots were colored in purple.

A black smooth cape hung from the back of his shoulders and reached all the way to the floor as well as an add-on to his bodysuit.

"Run? Me? Hah!" He tried to pose as cocky but failed.

"I remember how you ran in the summer." Annihilator Man reminded him with a snicker.

"And how you ran away some weeks ago." Xon' Edos added.

"Sha~h!" He growled.

"By the way. Are you not mistaking locations?"

"What…? AH! Damn it all! This isn't Duo's Comet!"

"No. And there is no super-destruction weapon. This is a landing vehicle, not a weapon." Xon' Edos snickered.

"Fuck! And here I thought I had to rush there before Duo deleted the planet…! Should've listened to Bapgei and rest more!"

"So you are not perfect. More like you never were."

"What will an alien that's only been around for 11 months know?" He growled back.

"I know. Because I have seen it with my eyes."

"Sheesh. Eat this! RPG-7!"

Twilight drew an RPG-7 missile launcher and shot towards Xon' Edos but he merely floated asides to dodge: he opened a portal that swallowed the missile but Twilight predicted what it did and quickly warped higher up to dodge the missile as it came out of a portal behind him: Colonel formed a Screen Divide and split in half thus causing its harmless explosion while Annihilator Man drew two swords colored white and purple.

"Come." He challenged.

"Sha~h! Why couldn't you be evil like your old man?"

"If you mean Laser Man… We had no interest of being so. We only wanted to complete our research." He shrugged.

"I'll turn you into JUNK!"

He drew two swords too and rushed for Annihilator Man who quickly blocked them without too much effort: Twilight seemed to be burning with impatience and anger while Annihilator Man was calm and composed: Twilight suddenly warped elsewhere and laughed as his body radiated thick purple smoke that began to difficult seeing him.

"IR mode: on." Both Colonel and Annihilator Man muttered.

"Echo Vision: on." Xon' Edos muttered.

"Eat these! Go! Aparoid Missiles!"

"What?"

Some portals formed and large greenish and black objects of irregular shape yet having a somewhat aerodynamic profile appeared: their surface was covered by countless small hexagons and they seemed to produce a propelling jet of their own.

"Allow me. Annihilator Beam!"

Annihilator Man shot three beams at each one and each missile was immediately wiped out: there was the sound of glass shattering during the blind moment and when it dimmed they saw that a hole had been shattered in the middle of space: bluish light radiated outside from it and Xon' Edos gasped.

"The core! Let us hurry!"

They all rushed inside: this Cyber World had a lot of pipes distributing something radiating out of a large cylinder slightly deeper in: the cylinder itself was black some small slits emanated that bluish glow from whatever was inside.

"That glow… Nuclear fusion?" Annihilator Man spotted.

"Yes. But I also use "cosmic energy": microwaves and other types of waves naturally originating in space…"

"Explanations later. We must stop Twilight."

"Where the hell are that core thing and the mega-capsules?" Twilight could be heard growling aloud.

"I told you that this is not Duo's Comet." Xon' Edos fumed.

"Damn it all. I forgot AGAIN? Bah! Whatever! I'll blow all of you up: interlopers!"

"Like we would allow you to."

A reddish barrier formed around the cylinder and the pipes: Twilight gasped but then some energy travelled across its surface and gathered in the center: a powerful beam about 2 meters tall and 1 wide shot outwards and Twilight roared in agony as the beam tore through his body: there was a sound and he reappeared outside of it but clearly damaged, some of his armor being broken and exposing equally broken clothes below plus broken skin the edges of which leaked integral data.

"W-worse than a Destruction Beam, d-damn it!"

"Flee." Xon' Edos icily commanded.

"Damn it all. I'll remember this, you Deoxys! I'll bury you one day no matter what tricks I gotta use~! You all! Gra~h!"

He formed a portal and escaped: the group sighed in relief while Guilty Spark joined them while mumbling something under his breath which surely was annoyance.

"Phew. That was close." Annihilator Man sighed in relief.

"Hum. It felt too easy even." Colonel was mistrusting.

"Maybe that is all the fool can do, in the end." Xon' Edos shrugged.

"Vexation, I say!" Spark muttered.

18:45 PM (Scotland Time)…

"… Phew. The swimming session was intense but worth it…"

"Welcome back, Anderson – sama."

"Hey. Annihilator Man. Did something happen while I was out?"

"Yes, sir. Important happenings, sir."

"That so?"

A young man around sixteen or seventeen years old entered what seemed to be a school bedroom that had a bed and a desk plus a trunk that was locked with a padlock.

He wore a school uniform and carried a sports bag on his right shoulder: his backpack could be seen atop the bed.

The young man, Anderson, had purple eye irises and silver-like hair.

"Yes, sir. Spark called me over to Utah: Twilight was assaulting Xon' Edos' spacecraft. We managed to repel the lamely ripped off Mordor Army and we then fought Twilight yet a defense system was enough to inflict heavy damage and force the fool to escape."

"Hum. I see."

"Apparently he got the wrong impression that that spacecraft had some super-weapon on it and it turned out there was no such thing to begin with." Annihilator Man added.

"Fine. As long as we could repel the guy… Speaking of which: has that villain published more nonsense?"

"Well, sir, the latest chapter related actual facts, for once."

"I'd forgotten. Fine. Let's see what the villain has to say and we'll prove we're not intimidated." Anderson sat on the chair after leaving the sports bag next to the backpack.

"Roger, sir. I already have it ready: I thought you might want to read it sooner or later so…"

"Good job."

"Thank you, sir. May I read?"

"No. I'll do it."

"Ah! I almost forgot, sir. Present and Axe Man reported that Zoan Gate Man was trying to access student data on the college they work at but he quickly fled when faced with Axe Man."

"Fine. "Well. After Liquid left for his trip I kept on handling the prison, rotating the inmates between other prisons, never showing favoritism for anyone and spreading rumors to keep newcomers in place. My connections ensured me the latest updates in comic books and _manga_ and also news about _anime_ or cartoons. That's how I killed the time: 2006 on its whole lacked anything of interest save for some times when I had to employ outside agents to make some of the men in the men's block who tried to force Marcus into their gangs to behave or else they'd get their heads cut off. Don't get me wrong. Marcus wasn't in love with me and I wasn't in love with me. The guy just happens to be my right – hand man, who'd quietly followed me since day one, never complaining or questioning, always doing what I said in a quiet and efficient manner. Apart from that nothing noticeable happened… Yet there was something picking me: my agents had been trying to hunt for Solidus but there was no trace of the guy. I felt pretty irritated. Targeting Solid was a waste of time to begin with due to the high security around the guy. And he lived in orbit: how were some brainless idiots going to get there, anyway?"… Che. I hate it when criminals get away with it."

"Well, sir…" Annihilator Man began.

"… I know. It could be applied in Father's case too yet… Oh well. I won't go over the details. It's surely tiresome."

"I apologize, sir."

"Don't bother. You're my pal. Not my servant. And make sure the neighbor is not up to something again."

"Roger, sir."

"Where was I at…? Ah! Yeah. "First half of 2007 also was deprived of interesting stuff… Until the summer began. Liquid had returned, at last! With a lot of knowledge, power and resources. And ready to plunge the world into terror and fear… It turned out Solidus had been stalking him but he managed to somehow shake the guy off but couldn't avoid having a fencing duel because I'd ordered him to do that if they met, years ago. I blame my lame imagination back then. So Liquid began it: Neo Gospel. He hired Nebula's Yuriko, built some Darkloids and rebuilt the original Gospel's Freeze Man. And he proved to be terrific and efficient. His campaign was very good yet his grand chance ended up bad. And to complicate things, a Navi he'd built actually rebelled and sided with sneaky Solidus! And together they ruined a backup plan involving a disciple Liquid had recruited. Damned Harrier man!"… Harrier man, oh come on." Anderson groaned.

"Greetings, Reclaimer. The Sentinels performed 14 orbits, rises, flips, inversions, zero – gee dives, loops…" Guilty Spark began to happily announce.

"Ah… I see." Anderson rolled his eyes.

"I am a genius! And I shall go do something similar with the Enforcers as well."

"Alright, alright."

"Hum, hum! I am a genius! Excellent! Superb!"

"I overdid it, really…" He rolled his eyes again.

"It might be so, sir." Annihilator Man admitted.

"Oh forget it. Let's see. "And to top it off, even though a final battle Liquid staged between him and Solid while his men beat the Supermen wannabes to a pulp ended up in an odd manner and nobody was sure of what had Liquid done: blow himself up or use a _bunshin_. But his men survived and met up with Jade Panther to take shelter and to be able to continue their strikes while Jade finished the preparations to start up his org."… Deadly Pandora, huh…"

"Anderson! Hear this! Seven and a half ducks blessed by Reverend Matías!" Someone laughed.

"Peterson: you surely have something far more worth your time."

"Peterson!"

"Yikes! Sir!"

"To your dorm! Do something useful!"

"Y-yes, sir!"

"Huff. I had that suspicion." Anderson sighed.

"Indeed, sir."

"… "So, unknowing if Liquid was alive or not, I tried to focus and wait for time to pass. But it was hard. My agents couldn't find anything about that either but I really didn't expect them to. If Liquid was alive and needed to hide then the guy could be in the midst of the Amazon jungle in the first place. By mid-December, though, some odd Navis began to pop out and they proved to be tough yet they always tended to self-destruct to wipe out any traces. I thought that was a message that Liquid was alive and using those as a distraction before he was ready to show up again. It amused me that a _dominatrix_ Navi was part of them and this one seemingly survived. As expected. 2007 ended and 2008 began. The new Navi guys began to show up lesser and instead revived, copied and strengthened Darkloids or Navis did. Rumors said that only 3 of them remained in the end. That was good. Leave only the best. And by mid-January good news finally came. Liquid visited me and admitted he'd been hiding to recover from the summer wounds. Phew! I finally felt relieved: Liquid was still around to kick some asses. Evil of your lives!"… What the hell is that supposed to mean, anyway? …"

"I'm afraid it's Vincent "Red" again, sir."

"Not that crazy Mexican again… Someone close the guy in the madhouse once and for all." Anderson groaned.

"Were it so easy, sir."

"Sheesh. Too many trolls! Tell Snape to dispatch them! And to clean his ugly hair." He made some irony.

"G-guess that, sir."

"Ah, whatever! "Liquid, however, decided not to openly announce his return yet to make the opponents feel unsure. They'd begun to hunt like mad for Jade but given Jade's unique background they only managed to take shots in the dark for almost one year. The fun I was having laughing at their backs hearing of their desperate searches and struggles and all of that bittersweet drama… Hey. You listenin'? Or do I need to whip ya 50 times for ya to listen? Huh?"… How stupid."

"I suppose so, sir."

"Anyway. "But since what's coming next is pretty dense and long then I'm goin' to leave it 'ere with my pirate dialect. Ya better go and wriggle and struggle and all. As for ya… I'm so gonna give ya some lessons so that ya learn ya place! Triangle – sama~ is waitin' to punish ya! Maybe by the time I feel generous I'll let ya listen' to the rest of the tale. So ya better pray that I get in that mood! Nyah, hah, hah!"… That villain's clearly aiming to create fueled up reviews…" Anderson sighed.

"Obviously, sir."

"Huff. Fine. I'll finish my homework. Tell the other two to stay on their toes just in case: seeing what happened in the summer to Past then it wouldn't be surprising that villain's targeting Future."

"Roger, sir. I'll dispatch messages immediately, sir."

"Go."

Annihilator Man saluted and left while Anderson took out his notebook and a Math textbook: he opened it and began to solve the problems there: he glanced at the window from time to time to see how the colors of the autumn reflected in the trees.

_Well. Time to work, Rick. I haven't come this far without effort and full dedication to this… No villain is going to get in the way of it!_

07:37 AM (Japan Time), Tuesday November the 12th…

"… Yo! Past. Been a while. Or, rather… Arushi… Was it?"

"Yeah. Future. Sorry. I think I don't know your name yet."

"Angou. Angou Saizou."

"Oh yeah. Well then. Arushi Masuko."

"Did ya get the message from the _Danna _– sama?"

"Of course I did."

A student of Akira Middle named Arushi Masuko (as evidenced by the uniform) was talking with someone through his PET (red and brown: had the _kanji_ _mamono_,"monster", colored vermillion and navy blue background) using the video-conference function as he walked up a street.

This student had brown messy hair and blue eye irises: he appealed as being in the same age as Netto and the others.

"And, yeah… That gal's sent gals to try to get me."

"Damn it. Priest – sama's hunch was correct."

The other guy, Angou Saizou, had messy emerald hair which shot out in several directions at random and equally emerald eye irises.

He looked slightly older than Arushi but he surely wasn't even 20 yet.

"Yeah. I always managed to shake 'em off sayin' "It's Ootaki – han from the Police HQ!"… And they ran off, guilty as charged!"

"Good. It'd seem they're rather _amateur_. The pros must be in the brig so that villain has no choice but to use _amateurs_."

"One day I'll tell 'em Hattori – sama's come to prove they're guilty as charged… And introduce 'em to Kudou. Heh! I'd send 'em to climb Mt. Kouya on foot!"

"Well. Since you're from Oosaka… No wonder. Maybe it'd actually do wonders to them."

"Gotta admit, though, that they lose to Kazuha – tan! They look so ugly and all! Like that corrupt lawyer in that case where Hattori and the gal were closed in the gal's attic!" He sighed.

"Whoa. They sure were _amateurs_."

"At least it ain't that annoyin' bike gal." He grumbled.

"Prophetess, the traitor? I know. At least that traitor's rotting in the jail by now. We made sure to send each of them to separate prisons so that they couldn't plot together. And to make it harder for Twilight to try to rescue them: he'd have to divide his men and we'd have several ready to fight them back." Arushi whispered.

"Ah! Sorry. Ya were on your way to the school, too? I'm also doin' the same: I'm 2nd hi school this course. Was 1st hi school 'till now. Gotta do it right if I want to join college."

"College… And you want to be a bike repairman?"

"Sure thin', man! Bikes make me burn! It's my romance!" He grinned.

"Well. It's good to have ambition in life."

"Mugroh, groh, groh. Oi, Arushi! I found someone and no – one!"

"In essence: me!"

"You two: can't you go chat elsewhere?" Arushi sighed.

"Yeah. Don't get in the way of our chat, man. OK?"

"OK! Let's go bust and thrust Higure Yamitarou!"

"Mugro~h… Fine!"

"Don't overdo it, either! Balrog." Arushi rolled his eyes.

"Ya two can be somewhat dangerous when left alone."

"Heh! Don't worry. After that I'm gonna finish tunin' up that bikin' bike, ya know!"

"Mugro~h… I'll be beating my records in the free battles!"

"Fine."

"Don't go over the edge."

"We'll go under it!" Destruction Man chuckled.

"Mugro~h!"

"These guys…" Both Operators sighed.

"Oi! Higure Yamitarou! I've come to take the flame Battle Chips I granted you in exchange for 66 devotees!"

"MASU~! BRING OUT THE HEAVY GUNS, DE MASU~!"

"What's with you?"

"Ah! De masu! Forgot there was a customer! Masu!"

"Hmmm… Rama." A familiar Navi voice muttered.

"Who's that?"

"Shadow Man." Balrog chuckled.

"Why not _Ninja_ Man?"

"Dunno."

"Don't ask me either." Shadow Man seemed to shrug.

"Higure Yamitarou. Will you give me what I want or what?" Dark Miyabi exasperatedly questioned.

"My apologies, de masu! _Kawarimi_, de masu! 1200 Z!"

"Fine. Here you have."

"Shuuko – chan! De masu!"

"Yes… 1200 Z… Thank you for your… visit."

"I always tell you to show some more confidence, de masu!" Higure whispered to her.

"I… try." She timidly replied.

"Good morning."

"By the way, Shadow Man… Beware of shadowy men!" Balrog made up a lame pun.

"Hmpf. Worthless…"

"Ya used to be the king of pranks! What happened?"

"Some lessons taught me meddling around too much brings upon you heavy punishment… In short: trolls get heavily punished. And I don't want to go through that again. So I've turned serious." Shadow Man scoffed and didn't seem to give a crap for what he was before.

"Yikes."

"Maybe that could work on you." Arushi dully suggested.

"Or ya." Angou warned next.

"Uh-oh." Both Navis muttered.

"Were it so easy!" Number Man sighed.

"Pyurururu~?" Aqua Man wondered.

"Go play." Number Man told him.

"Pyururu~!"

"Be… careful."

Arushi, in the meanwhile, had reached Akira Middle and since he still had some time left he waited beneath a tree: he shut off the video for safety and put on headphones.

"Safety." He whispered.

"Yeah. Just done the same…"

"Anyway. Did you tell the police?"

"Of course. They've got 'em in the archives. But they lack evidence."

"Hmpf. Fine. At the evening I'll pay them a visit."

"Good enough. I'll come 'long too. The 2 of us should suffice to send 'em runnin' for their outdated cosmetics."

"Hmpf. Not bad. Well then, see you later."

"Later, man."

"Balrog: you know the drill."

"Mugro~h… Of course!"

"Fine. Later."

Arushi ended the call and sighed before placing the PET on the arm-strap: he headed up into his classroom and prepared the material for the lesson: someone cleared their throat and he fumed as he turned around to see Karazawa there.

"Your girlfriend?" She snickered.

"Well. Who knows? It might be my old man." He shrugged.

"What. How boring."

"Life is not ruled by _clichés_."

"Like I told ya countless times!" Scherezade seemed to snicker.

"Shoo, shoo."

"Oh well. Fine. But one who warns a traitor is not. Boil cha brains, ex – beauty."

"T-THAT GAL!" Karazawa yelled.

_How the heck do they still stick together if they're at each other's neck at least 4 times a day? _Arushi inwardly groaned.

"Karazawa – san! Be quiet! Everyone! To their posts!"

"Yikes! Y-yes, _sensei_!"

Arushi sat down on his post and prepared to take note while sighing.

_Hmpf… Anaya Maria… You can't hide forever… We'll find you… my word!_


	7. Chapter 7: Eccentric

**Chapter 7: Eccentric**

09:57 AM (Japan Time), Wednesday November the 13th…

"… And remember! I want the report by Monday! A _decent_ report. No more and no less."

"Yes, _sensei_!"

"Good. Let us meet on Friday."

"Yes, sir!"

"Phew. Axe Man. Any news?"

"As you know, sir…"

"I know. The other day we repelled that coward."

"I've detected Swallow Man trying to steal passwords as of late but failing at it… Should I fight them if they appear again? Sir."

"You have my permission."

"Yes, sir. Present – sama."

"Hum. Go check."

"Yes, sir. I shall report immediately."

A teacher in a college somewhere ended his class and exited it: he headed for the teacher's room while holding his PET: it was colored purple and yellow and its symbol was the _Kanji_ _ono_ or "axe" colored forest green and set against a white-colored background: he held it on the right hand.

The teacher could be on his late 20s or early 30s.

He had blonde neatly combed hair and blue eye irises.

"Hum. Do not lower the guard. Axe Man. They're capable of using that "bunshin" that detonates and inflicts heavy damage."

"Yes, Present – sama. I did battle that Yamato Man fool once."

"True. But nevertheless. This is an order."

"Yes, sir."

Axe Man's azure eye irises were protected by the helmet's protection

He looked like a medieval knight with azure armor covered in bronze diamond patterns.

He carried a large axe on his right hand and an octahedron shield on his left one adorned with the word "Rama" colored golden.

His legs and arms had sparkling ivory patterns spinning around their surface.

He looked over a meter and eighty tall and his axe emitted an unsettling sparkle of cleanness to it.

He merely nodded and left the PET while "Present" entered the teacher's room: he spotted a woman teacher that was mumbling over something while impatiently tapping the central table's edge.

"Masada – sensei?"

"Utsuki – sensei. Can you get me a hammer?"

"Excuse me, ma'am?"

"I NEED TO HIT SOME IDIOTS IN THE HEAD WITH IT!"

"W-whoa! Please be rational! Ma'am."

"Easier said than done, Utsuki – sensei!"

"Masada. Dear. Calm down." Another woman teacher sighed.

"Sereida! Cha go mop the classrooms."

"Trouble." Utsuki sighed.

"Truly, sir. Masada has too much temper."

"What can be done, Sereida – sensei?"

"Wish I knew."

"Huff."

10:08 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Heh, heh, heh… Another lil bit…"

"And you head will be impaled on a lance to then be exhibited at the gates of the city… As a warning…"

"Who the…? You're Axe Man! Rama!"

"Yamato Man mentioned me, I see."

"But I'm not a thick-head like that guy!"

"Prove it. Before I cut your head off."

"Yikes. This guy gives me the vibes…!"

"Going to run away to your Lord's side?"

"W-who will run away! Swallow Cutter!"

"Useless."

Swallow Man had been trying to apparently access a server but Axe Man crept from behind: he turned and gasped: Axe Man's dull tone of voice and glare didn't help keep him cocky and the sparkle of the axe didn't help either: Swallow Man tried shooting an attack but it hit the armor and didn't even inflict a single scratch: Swallow Man cursed and drew his blade which began to hum.

"Taste my hi-frequency blade!"

"Hmpf. A worthless tool."

"What was that? Grah! I'm getting annoyed."

"Hmpf. Axe Swing!"

"Whoa!"

Axe Man suddenly moved his right foot forward and the left one backwards to get into pose: he readied the axe by placing it horizontally and quickly swung it forming a circle: Swallow Man had to duck to avoid it grazing (not cutting, it would've missed by mere inches) his neck.

"Damn it! I'm not afraid!"

"Prove it."

"Che! Eat this! Heavy Laser!"

"Hum."

Swallow Man formed a Mega Cannon with the muzzle changed to a thinner one: it shot a thick heavy laser at Axe Man and impacted on his armor but it barely began to scratch the surface: Swallow Man seemed to lose all confidence on the spot.

"Che! Dark Generator: on!"

The sound of heartbeats rang out as purple energy began to surround Swallow Man's body: he growled and his eyes glowed red as he formed the Mega Cannon again and this time shot a powerful purple beam that impacted Axe Man and did make a noticeable wound to his armor: the recoil pushed him back while Axe Man calmly analyzed it.

"Hum. It'd seem that an attack with an output of 300 points is the best it can withstand…" He calmly muttered.

"Devil. That's stronger than a Dream Aura!" Swallow Man grumbled.

"You underestimate us. As usual." He dully taunted.

"What was that? Eat this! Die! Dark _Bunshin_!"

A _bunshin_ formed and ran for Axe Man but it suddenly detonated on its own forming a shockwave of energy that hit both combatants at the same time and inflicted heavy damage to their armored bodies, instantly vaporizing layers of them: both panted to recover once the blinding white flash died.

"Damn it. You placed a Giga Mine on the ground and caused the whole mass of the _bunshin_ to be released!"

"Hmpf. Annihilator Man – sama is an expert on this field. He gave me some advice. But it would seem I underestimated its destructive power, for once. But it shall not happen again."

"Whatever! You're exposed! Let's go! "God Bird"!"

"Hmpf. "Dig"!

"What!"

Swallow Man was surrounded by a fiery aura and shot forward at top speed but Axe Man merely dug into the ground and Swallow Man shot past to meet a firewall: he crashed into it and got partly embedded on it, with only his legs below the knees sticking out.

"Grhgaht!" He growled something undecipherable.

"That your best, Neo Gospel?" Axe Man re-emerged to taunt.

As a response, Swallow Man used an Area Steal and warped behind Axe Man: he tried plunging his sword through but got stuck: he looked up and gasped because the rear armor was intact.

"Fool. Only the front armor got destroyed. Same for you." Axe Man icily taunted.

"Huh… Damn it! Dark Generator, grant me more power! Godly power!"

"What was that?" Twilight suddenly questioned with both annoyance and suspicion.

"N-nothing, sir! I… I got nervous, sir!" He gasped.

"It better be so." He icily warned.

"Y-yes, sir… It shall not happen again, sir…!"

"Battling with the front armor busted is too dangerous. Pull out!"

"R-roger, sir! I'll remember this, you executioner!"

Swallow Man ran into the Remote Gate (after he pulled the sword out) and Axe Man merely shrugged.

"I merely need to install a backup of my armor. It will do until Annihilator Man – sama has time to prepare a new one." He calmly muttered.

"Well done, Axe Man. That should teach them a lesson. Hmpf."

13:33 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Yay! Go, Hoeruko! "Surf"!"

"Metto~!"

"Yay! The road's clear, Iris – oneechan!"

"Well done, Trill."

"The Mettools are running. What do we do, Omega?"

"You know the drill, Zero. Ignore them. Let's go find the mid-boss."

"Alright."

Trill, Iris (on her Navi form), Omega and Zero were standing in the middle of a street of a city that looked deserted and damaged by some war: Trill had used the PKMN "Hoeruko" to wash away a pack of 10 Mettools so the group advanced further in.

"Falcon! Punch!"

"Was that an idea of yours? Boss." Omega called out.

"Kir Osh."

"Well. It helps shatter the ice." Zero shrugged.

"The guy's point." Vadous shrugged.

"Heh, heh, heh."

"That's Ganondorf, right?" Omega recognized the chuckle.

"Yeah. Since he's got an attack that looks like a slower but stronger version of the Falcon Punch then he's got both of them battling about 20 meters SSE of your position. Some Viruses have actually stopped to see it out of curiosity."

"Yay! And then they'll go flying!"

"I showed him a bit of the game, gotta admit. I didn't think it'd harm since it's supposed to be fun." Omega whispered to Iris.

"Alright."

"Mario~!"

"It's me, Mario!"

"Yay! Luigi & Mario!"

"Let's go." Zero rallied.

The group advanced forward while meeting some opposition in the form of Viruses: they reached a square and King Teresa suddenly popped out of nowhere while making that creepy laughter.

"I'm not gonna let ya pass!"

"Oh yeah? How about this? Lights: on!"

Omega snapped his right hand's thumb and index: some spotlights set on the rooftops turned on and focused on King Teresa who had to cover his face.

"Gruwa~h! I'll remember this!"

He ran off but dropped a Big Door Key (taken from some _Zelda_ game) that Omega picked up.

"Easy money. Let's go."

"Yay!"

"Not so fast! Now it's MY turn to shine! Growa~h!"

Koppa dropped down, slamming the ground and vomiting a stream of flames: Omega merely directed an unimpressed glare at the guy who recoiled and seemed to be nervous.

"Huh! What! It ain't Mario! Mario~! Come here~! I'm going to challenge you~!" He grumbled.

He ran off and the group was able to continue: Trill was giggling as he rode atop the "Hoeruko": they soon reached the main door of a 5-story building that seemingly was some government office.

"Big Door Key: use. Door opens. We can go inside."

"Yay!"

"Not so fast! That's as far as you come, Falcon! Race me!"

Samurai Goroh ran out of the door next but stopped upon seeing he'd gotten the wrong guy.

"M-my bad! See ya!"

"Hey! You! Where is the lil girl?" A familiar voice demanded.

"What lil girl? Ask the fortune-teller!"

"Huh? What's happening there?"

Ganondorf (with his _Twilight Princess_ appearance) stepped out and looked mistrusting of the group: he lifted his right hand and one could see the glow of the crest signaling the Triforce of Power: nothing else happened so he grumbled and walked back inside.

"I thought we could make it something like an open-world game where several characters come in and out." Vadous admitted.

"That isn't bad either." Omega shrugged.

"It seems like we can finally go in: let us go." Iris suggested.

"Yeah. Sorry for the hold-up."

They stepped into the largely damaged hall and spotted several large holes in the walls that led to the side-alleys and which explained the constant flow of characters: they currently spotted Wario fooling around by pretending he was tackling people with the right shoulder: he chuckled but the group ignored him and headed up the stairs since the elevator was out of power.

"Too quiet." Iris whispered to Omega.

"Maybe there's a trap."

They suddenly heard the noise of swords clashing between them.

"What's there?"

They rushed up into the 2nd floor hall and spotted Link battling Marth: both seemed absorbed in their duel while Ike was clashing with Roy instead: Meta Knight was hovering around the ceiling and then Kirby ran in: Meta Knight rushed for him but Kirby swallowed Link, copied his ability and tossed him out again: they began to clash as well.

"Swordsmen Floor?" Zero tried to shatter the tension.

"Guess that." Omega shrugged.

"Goal's on the rooftop." Iris reminded them.

"Fine. Let's go."

They headed up into the 3rd floor and peeked: Fox and Falco were having an exchange of shots while Sheik was battling Wolf: Yoshi danced around and Young Link was trying to give chase.

"Nothing important. Next floor."

The 4th floor contained Zero Suit Samus flipping and shooting at Lucario who dodged and countered with his attacks: Pikachuu was toying around with Pichuu, who tried to keep up to Pikachuu's speed.

"Yay! Pikachuu and Pichuu! Go, Pichuu! Yay!"

"One more floor to check…"

The 5th floor had Zelda engaging Peach while Mr. Game & Watch was having trouble with King Dedede: Snake was exchanging blows with Mewtwo as well.

"Good. We're almost at the rooftop. Get ready."

"Yay! Boss battle!"

The group finally reached the rooftop and found Dr. Mario along with ROB there: Samus (with her Chozo Suit on) joined them all of a sudden followed by Ness.

"Let's go!"

"Yay!"

Trill rushed for Ness, Omega faced Samus, Zero battle Dr. Mario and Iris fought ROB.

"Waterfall! Yay!"

"Super Vulcan!"

"Hah! Hrah!"

"Plasma Gun!"

"Team Sub! Team Sub! Team Sub!" Some voices began to cheer.

"Whose idea was that?" Omega rolled his eyes.

"Mine. Sorry. Thought it sounded cooler." Vadous apologized.

"Fine."

"Uahah!" Dr. Mario yelped as he was sent flying.

"Did you think your capsules would block my sword?"

"Beep!" ROB beeped as he was defeated as well.

"Close-quarters Mega Cannon." Iris merely announced.

"Uwa~h!"

"Yay! Hydro Pump is strong!" Trill giggled.

"Alright. Here I go: go flying!"

Omega delivered some kicks and punches at a mad speed before rushing for Samus and tackling her: the speed and energy sent her flying: a flag with the Subspace logo appeared along with the 3D text "Mission Complete".

"Yay! Today was fun! I want to come back to this world!"

"Fine. Then I'll leave it as a permanent setting."

"Well. Can't say it wasn't distracting. Let's go back to the real world!"

17:57 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Ah… It's at times like these when I wish I had someone I could talk to, someone who could understand me… Dad won't do: and I don't want to annoy the other classmates with this topic…"

"Oh my. What a beautiful boy. Are you in trouble?"

"Huh? W-who are you, mister?"

"Oh! Don't be afraid. I'm just a counselor."

"Counselor?"

"Here's my business card: general counselor. I give good advice."

"Inosuke Yadeo…?"

"Indeed! That's my beautiful name!"

"I see…"

"Well then. If you feel like you need help… Give me a ring. I've got another job and this counselor thing is like a hobby… So I'm only available at certain times… Good-bye, beautiful boy!"

"Good… bye. What an odd person."

Eboshi Shuuichi had been sitting on a bench next to the Akihara City playground while looking tired and depressed: he'd been sighing in a resigned and defeated manner until someone popped out.

This someone was a man on his mid-20s or a bit older who could be over a meter and eighty tall.

He had long pink-dyed hair that reached until the waist and green eye irises.

He wore a simple suit with a red tie, pants and shoes.

He handed Eboshi a business card and then walked away while humming a tune: Eboshi looked unsure but merely pocketed it and walked back home which he reached a few minutes later.

"Dad isn't home yet. Let's go to my room."

He entered his room, left his backpack atop the desk and lay face-up on the bed while looking at the ceiling.

_Tooru – kun told me he's actually _yaoi _and he's been having sex with Netto – kun and Saito – kun for years. I don't want to get in the way of his love but I've got no one I can ask that. Arushi – kun was raped twice by evil women and I'm afraid he doesn't want to know anything about that: I don't think he'd get angry at me for asking but… Ah… I'm sure Tooru – kun could manage yet… I don't feel like it… What should I do? For the time being let's read something… I don't really like it but it's picking me so I'm going to read that journal that evil woman is publishing… Maybe there's some hint hidden there, even…_

"Let's see… "Mid-June of 2008 came. One day, as scheduled, Liquid came and managed to extract us from the New Orleans prison. We met up with Jade and Liquid told me that the winter Navis weren't his but another party: some programming _otakus_, it'd seem. But they wouldn't get in our way so there was no need to worry. We moved to Jade's HQ yet I kept a low profile, not proclaiming anything and letting the rumor that I was his niece spread around the execs and the staff. I didn't want to start up trouble at Jade's place either so I didn't do any S&M then. But something was bugging my subconscious. I felt like I was forgetting something very important. And the answer, curiously enough, came from an article in _Science_ about a project to drill and reach a lake under Antarctica that may have primitive bacteria and all. Antarctica! That was it! Raiden! I was forgetting that Raiden would soon be activated! And his pal, Indy, couldn't guide him to us without coordinates or orders! We managed to reestablish contact with Indy just in time with less than 24 hours before activation! TOO CLOSE!"… Raiden? That must be Nelaus – kun. And Isaac… So what Tooru – kun told me was true… I didn't doubt him yet…"

"I'm home." Mr. Hat announced.

"Ah! Welcome back, dad!"

"How was your day like, Shuuichi?"

"As usual."

"Good. I'll be on the living room: I need some rest, since that radio interview made me feel tired."

"Alright."

Eboshi heard his father head further in and then resumed looking at his laptop's screen.

"… "So! Raiden and Indy got here but I'd already changed my plans. To avoid "scandalizing" him from the start we'd pretend we'd just been toying with drug traffic and money laundering. I told Liquid to train the guy in Net Battles but never mention anything about sex. We also tried to generalize the opponents and just say they were mere Net Police. Things progressed smoothly: those guys were taking shots in the dark the whole time. To keep them busy (forgot to say it before) Liquid arranged for a desert campaign."… Desert campaign? Ah! When Internet City became a desert and those weird Viruses and Navis began to roam around it: I remember the news of how the Internet City building had been hijacked, yeah…"

"Hi, Shuuichi." Hat Man appeared on a corner of the screen.

"Ah! Hi, Hat Man."

"Did you call?"

"Huh? No."

"How odd. I got an email from you."

"What was the sign?"

"Sign? "Eboshi"… Wait! If it was to me you wouldn't use it so…"

"Mwah, hah, hah. You gotta be a duck sans legs!"

"Who?"

"Cloud Man!"

"Oho! Isaac told you guys 'bout the great me~?"

"How did you get inside, you?" Hat Man grumbled.

"Trade secret! Windargum Leviosa!"

"What?"

"Not Harry Potter…" Eboshi groaned.

"Why not? It's popular! The 6th movie was released back in July! Snape looks as ugly as always: wonderful!" He laughed.

"How lame." Hat Man groaned.

"Che, che. The public expects you to struggle and wriggle!"

"Oh yes?" He was unimpressed.

"Mwah, hah, hah."

"How about you leave people in peace?" Hat Man fumed.

"Why would I do that? We're a terrorist gang!"

"Hmpf."

"Found you!" Blues exclaimed.

"Oho. Blues, eh? Fine. Last one buys Snape's potions! See ya!"

"Don't run away, you!"

"How maddening." Hat Man groaned.

"You don't know half of it."

"I'm off before I go mad."

Hat Man left the PC while Eboshi rolled his eyes and sighed.

"… "By early July, though, there were new happenings. Indy spotted someone who held the secret regarding a new type Navi… Liquid recognized them and we arranged for their kidnapping but the Navi got away and ended up meeting Solid's gang. I thought I could force the lil girl to confess by dominating her but then I thought it over since I didn't want to cause a ruckus at Jade's place."… Phew!"

"What was that ruckus?" Mr. Hat suddenly came in.

"Cloud Man."

"Neo Gospel?"

"Come to troll Hat Man and me."

"Oh come on."

"Luckily Blues found him and ran away…"

"This city is maddening!" Mr. Hat sighed.

"At least it's not Gotham City." Eboshi inwardly muttered.

Mr. Hat left the room and shut the door so Eboshi resumed reading the journal.

"… "So we tried to bombard her with nonsense a crazy Mexican made up but it didn't work. And to top it off, she ended up running away. Fortunately she didn't know the base's location. That meant Solid & co. would figure out about Raiden but it didn't matter by then: they'd already noticed days before. But what worried me is that Liquid reported they'd found out about Jade: they had a mysterious informer. I couldn't figure out who it was and that made me feel nervous. I decided that now we could pit Indy against the civilian… Bah. Why bother? Everyone figured it out when I spoke about the N1 Grand Prix, anyway. Yeah, I meant that Rock Man kiddo all along. There, satisfied? Sheesh."… What's with the moods?" He wondered.

"Mugro~h… Welcome to the abode of outcasts!"

"You're Arushi – kun's Navi, no?"

"Huh? You know Arushi?"

"We're classmates. What do you want? To troll?"

"Well…"

"I'm going to ring him up. Maybe you need some punishment like Shadow Man. Don't you?"

"Uo~h!"

"Flee, troll." He fumed.

_What an afternoon!_

"Anyway! "Indy and Raiden had some clashes with the guy to prove both his training and his hidden abilities. Things seemed to be stable and looked like they could continue like that. Jade had a plan on mind, though, that I liked: hijack the DNN Studios and broadcast signal noise across the world to mess with all electronic stuff. That would be a perfect way to prove the power of the coalition Deadly Pandora – Neo Gospel. That was on early August. We felt like we were in control and we could hold Solid & co. at bay yet things didn't go as planned… Again. Guess all of ya have heard of what happened there or seen the videos. I won't bother to go into details. I got irritated at the fact that one of Liquid's men, Cosmo Man, screwed it up and almost tore off Rock Man's arms! The brute! But I had further bad news in store for me: Raiden ditched me! My Godfather had called him and told him about my businesses! Damn it all! It wasn't enough: Marcus, Jade and I were caught and Liquid had to flee along with his men… Che! I was back at New Orleans!"… Serves you right."

"Huff. It'd seem there was a bug in the firewall. I finally managed to fix it: I sent complains to the company too." Hat Man grumbled.

"Really…" He rolled his eyes.

"I'm going to undergo a deeper maintenance!"

"Alright. Let's see… "I spent the rest of August and September burning with anger. Out of my 4 elite agents, 3 had betrayed me! Without stopping to remember I had given life to them! Liquid told me he'd decided to move to Melbourne because it looked promising. I told him to go ahead and to get ready to bust those mice when he was ready. It's a bit late by now, but I forgot to say that a year ago Solid blew up the Palace after Liquid had managed to refurbish it and lift it into orbit again. So there I went, not caring anymore for what the hell happened in the prison yet no – one dared touch me, Jade or Marcus. Liquid said that there were orders from the big fishes. The Frenchman and the guy's council!"…"

_Frenchman? Council? Dunno. _Eboshi wondered.

"… "However! Something happened by late September. Some idiots named "Atomic Network" picked a military chopper and disguised it as a TV chopper to then machine-gun a neighborhood! And they almost killed Rock Man's Operator! Ironically enough, I felt VERY annoyed. So I told Liquid to figure out who the hell they were and SMASH them! Nobody would laugh at me! And even less steal the prey I'd been waiting to capture for years!"… Yikes. I remember about that: it's only been a year since then…!"

"To all decent and clever people out there: the destruction you wished for has arrived!" A familiar voice announced on the street.

"Cloud Man AGAIN?" He groaned.

"Found you!" Enzan cursed while he panted.

"Oho. VP – sama~… Faster than I thought… Let's go over there next: I need to get a sign of the Ice Climbers 'long the way… Heh, heh, heh! _No pain no gain_!"

"W-wait! Damn it all!"

"Ijuuin – kun… Do your best but I'm afraid you're being trolled." Eboshi sighed at the panorama.

_Let's continue…_

"… "Along the way, Liquid actually found a very clever masochist guy in Melbourne and seeing his intelligence decided to recruit him as his disciple, Darth Bapgei! AKA "Talon"… Creepy, isn't it? Tee, heh, heh! Creepier than the PKMN Tower in Shion Town: everyone's childhood trauma! Isn't it?"… YIKES! Not that again! I saw a play-through on YouTube and it WAS creepy! The behavior of the Trainers, the BGM, the mysterious ghosts…! Ah! I wanna forget it! The remake I played 5 years ago didn't help either: the fog made it scarier, even!"

"Is something the matter? Shuuichi." Mr. Hat asked.

"N-nothing, dad. I just remembered a creepy game."

"Ah. Alright."

Mr. Hat came out and Eboshi felt a shiver go down his spine: he nodded his head sideways several times.

"Let's focus! "In the end, those fools began to blow up to try to take out the Net Saviors but Liquid lowered their self-destruct output because we needed them to remain alive. Why? They were needed for a project that architect Navi I built so long ago, Gate, was involved in. Someone who hired the company he worked in was interested in gathering battle data about them. It looked interesting so I told Liquid to make sure they survived: I wasn't intending to give up on them yet. Liquid made sure to humiliate the boss of that gang, some idiotic cocky ex-Dark Land man with a name that SUCKED. With those idiots out of the way, the project could begin. Things seemed to be getting interesting."… Project… After Atomic Network…? The FOD…? I see."

"Catch me, Mr. Fusion!"

"Wait!"

"Now Ijuuin – kun has to chase him while in Cross Fusion, huh…?"

"How about ya ring up Wolf – sama~?"

"Who the hell? I don't care!"

"Let's focus, heck! "So! By late November, all was ready and in place. A new Navi gang, the Filibusters of Death or FOD, appeared. They were themed after the Trumps with the exception of their Boss, Buccaneer Man, who was a genuine pirate. Initially, the plan was to put some fall guy as leader but because we got involved, Solid & co. soon figured out Liquid was behind it: Liquid had heavily hinted at it, anyway. The problem was that the guys behind it got stuck at Navi development and approached Gate. Gate then approached me for permission. And thus the initial idea ended up being busted. Oh well. To put it simple: if it wasn't for us none of that would've succeeded."… Oh yes? And I see what you're getting at: Tooru – kun told me about that, too…"

"How dense, Mr. Anderson! I mean the Green Panther!"

"Green Panther? Laika? Oh come on." "CF" Blues grumbled.

"Did you call for me? Enzan."

"Speaking of the devil… Help me deal with this moron. I've been running up and down the district chasing the moron."

"Fine. I needed some action."

"More like screen-time before the Digital Snatcher takes it from ya~? The guy's eager to make the debut… Eager Man!"

"Oh come on." Everyone groaned.

"Ya kids go play elsewhere!" A rude man yelped from somewhere.

"Be quiet, old man! That's the Net Police to begin with! You go chat with Ms. Bottle!" A woman complained.

"Huff. Not those 2 again… They seem to be like matter and antimatter to begin with." Eboshi groaned.

_Headphones and some music: now!_

He put on headphones and started the Windows Media Player: he hummed a tune and managed to re-focus.

"… "The FOD were busted before the year ended but the data they gathered would be useful to complete the real project. I was extremely excited: something interesting was happening! And Liquid, being the smart guy he was, managed to fool everyone into thinking that the Talon was but a program. Tee – heh – heh! How dense! Oh well. It's gotten somewhat long insofar so as for what's happened during 2009, we'll start talkin' and chattin' and yellin' 'bout it next day. There, lick my boots and pledge loyalty to me! Nyah, hah, hah!"… How arrogant."

"Eat these! Armor-piercing rounds!" "CF" Laika exclaimed.

"Gugawah! Forgot about those! By Golden and Supreme Vincent!"

"Oh heck. Not Vincent again!" "CF" Blues cursed.

"Your number 3 nightmare, VP – sama~?"

"Number 3? And what would number 2 be, huh?"

"Diets!"

"Damn it all."

"Enzan…!" "CF" Laika grumbled.

"And number 1 is: gossip press!"

"Earth, swallow me whole…"

"Enzan – sama, sir…"

"As for Wolf – sama here… Beware of foxes!"

"Stop comparing me to Wolf from _Star Fox_."

"Oh! What do I see! It's fearsome! It's… Giratina!"

"WHAT!"

"Zoink!"

"Tricked us, the…!"

"Why me…?" Eboshi dropped his head atop the desk, groaning and defeated.

The noises died down and Eboshi looked like he couldn't bear with it anymore: he headed into the bathroom and picked the shower to shower his face with cold water: he sighed in relief.

"There. I needed it. Something to vent off this built up frustration. If that's what the villain is aiming at then we're in trouble. For real. I don't have enough patience to deal with crazy things!" He groaned.

_Maybe that person I met earlier could be of help in that? Or finding a way to shake off this stress… Let's think about it for some days… _

"Alright, this is STUPID. The firewall had been hacked to its very roots and all of the passwords were "SNAPE'S UGLY!"… I'm fed up." Hat Man cursed.

_You're not the only one, Hat Man… Will this madness EVER end? Crap._


	8. Chapter 8: Kindness & arrogance

**Chapter 8: Kindness & arrogance**

14: 24 PM (Japan Time), Saturday November the 16th…

"… Well, well, well."

"What?"

"Don't say anything, Martin Blackdesu. I know it."

"What do you mean, Charles?"

"That you were about to show up for the season's puzzle-solving episode!"

"HUH? What the heck?"

"Heh! Not bad."

"Lander… Maybe you need some lessons like Shadow Man?"

"Man! Davis! Don't look at me like I'm guilty of it all! I'm the _Sheriff_ to begin with, no? The Scott _Sheriff_!"

"I know. But a warning is a warning."

Charles had come to a café terrace somewhere in Densan City to meet up with a guy who'd been waiting there given his half-empty coffee cup.

The guy, Martin Blackdesu, could be one or two years younger than Charles.

He had unkempt reddish hair and brown eye irises which currently depicted some confusion.

He sported a golden-colored sleeveless vest which was open and he had a black t-shirt underneath it: he also wore blue jeans with a modern-looking double-row belt.

He had an arm strap for a Link PET on his right arm: the Link PET was colored in camouflage colors.

Its emblem was a skull colored black and with blue eyes set against a silver background.

"Remember, Lander. I'm watching you."

"Oh come on. Stop being so paranoid, Davis."

Lander, the Navi, wore a Mexican-style hat over his brown dust – colored helmet which also had some random blue and black dots scattered around it: his eyes' irises were brown.

His main body was colored navy blue and he had an open blackish vest over the torso: he exhibited a _Sheriff_'s star on the right side of his torso.

His shoulders were anatomically correct and they had brass plating over them.

The arms' length and the elbows were colored brown too and his forearms were green with two orange circling bands on them: his wrists had metallic bracelets on them.

He sported a black leather belt with two Colt revolvers on it along with bullets on his waist.

His legs were also colored brown but he had jeans over them which ended at the start of his boots.

The boots were colored black: they had blue and brown dots across them.

"Waiting for someone?"

"Yeah. Ayase."

"Our young chum, eh?"

"Don't make fun of my step-brother, Charles." Martin grumbled.

"Whoa! Sorry, sorry!"

"Hey there, ani – chan! And Charles!"

"Hi there, Ayase."

"Heh! The chum and the folk!"

"What was that? Oh come on. Lander! Save me the nicknames, will ya? I never really liked them."

Ayase was a young guy that was about 16 years old.

He had blond-like hair and his eyes' irises were blue.

He wore a long-sleeved navy blue jumper with a hood, jeans, a black leather belt, white socks and green sneakers.

He had some slight remains of old cuts and scratches on his face along with some coagulated wounds on his skull but which were hard to spot.

"A wise man once said… Struggle and wriggle!" An all-too-familiar voice rang out from Martin's PET.

"Sheesh. It's the bird guy." Lander grumbled.

"Swallow Man?" Charles groaned.

"Yeah, College of Charleston! Come to haunt ya~…"

"Lovely." Davis fumed.

"No black slabs are gonna stop me!"

Lander drew his guns and took out the safety as Swallow Man appeared in front of him with his arms crossed and looking arrogant: Lander quickly shot 12 bullets in a row that bounced off the armor but then began to rebound and form a cage around Swallow Man: he chuckled and formed a tornado to repel them all before drawing the sword and dashing for Lander: he picked his Mexican hat and flung it at Swallow Man: the sword made contact and streaks of electricity jumped off it to hit Swallow Man yet he was unaffected by those: Lander cursed under his breath and then picked his _Sheriff_ star and threw it like it was a _shuriken_: it got bounced off, too, and Lander grumbled.

"My attacks aren't designed to work on armored Navis! Martin! How about we bet it on your Folder?" He called out.

"Man. I really should redesign them. When it comes to small fry then they work but with these guys… But I always thought it was bothersome to have to come up with new tactics from zero… Sheesh."

"Sloth?" Swallow Man laughed.

"And you say that?" Davis taunted back.

"Oho. Dave~… IBM 10000 wants popcorn!"

"How lame. The IBM pun is 40 years old!" Davis shot back.

"HUH? That old?" He didn't expect that one.

"Of course. The movie came out in 1968!"

"Thought it was 1998!"

"There's something named Wikipedia."

"Sheesh. Cloud Man! Ya tricked me!" He fumed.

"Now! Program Advance! Mugen Vulcan! Armor-piercing rounds, courtesy of Search Man! GO~!"

"What! Ugro~h!"

The Mugen Vulcan began to spin and bombard Swallow Man, who'd lowered his guard due to both his cocky mood and his annoyance at being tricked: the rounds took effect and opened some wounds: Swallow Man recoiled and grumbled as black mass began to form around the edge of them and repair them yet Lander quickly aimed the Elec Pulse Chip and shot: miniature explosions happened around the edges of the wounds and the mass vanished: Swallow Man suddenly formed a jet-pack and ignited it to fly at hi-speed for Lander: he tried to dig but a mine placed under the ground exploded and stunned him: Swallow Man rammed him and curved his path to fly upwards to then drop Lander towards the ground.

"Swallow Cutter!"

"Barrier!"

"It's got Breaker!"

"That's damned cheating!"

"Mwah, hah, hah! Bad guys never play fair!"

"Sheesh." Davis grumbled.

"Area Steal! And now! Mega Cannon!"

"Uack! Damn it! More piercing rounds?"

"Yeah!"

"Shit. Here I thought this combo would take you out…!"

"Too bad, outcast!" Lander mocked.

By now, they'd both returned to the ground and Swallow Man looked like he was running out of patience.

"Che. Things are going to get important soon and I'm still this crappy at battling… Twilight – sama underestimates these guys!"

"Another big hit?" Davis wondered.

"Surely…" Charles looked suspicious.

"They never give up, do they?" Ayase grumbled.

"Were it so easy." Martin fumed.

"Ah! Whatever! Eat this! Big Spin Attack!"

Swallow Man drew his blade and loaded energy on it before suddenly spinning over his axis while advancing forward: he hit Lander, who was caught with the guard down, and sent him flying to land two meters forward: he got to his feet, groaning, just as Swallow Man suddenly jumped into the air and shot a Swallow Cutter: he had to flip backwards to dodge it as it hit the ground and formed a small crater there: he suddenly heard a sound and glanced over his right shoulder only to see the purple "bunshin" inches away from him while Swallow Man rushed from the front using that jet-pack again.

"What!"

"Dream…!" Martin was already sliding the image of the Battle Chip towards Lander using the holographic interface and was about to upload it into Lander.

"Too slow, Cyber Snatcher! Ka – boom!"

There was the blinding white explosion and Swallow Man laughed while Martin had to look at the side to avoid being blinded by the intense light emanating from the screen.

"LANDER!"

"It did it! I beat the guy! I…!"

"Not so fast you MOTHERFUCKER! Giga Laser Gun!"

"MUGRA~H!"

"What!"

Swallow Man had begun to laugh like he'd won when Lander's furious voice rang out from close by: there was the sound of a gun turning on and Swallow Man groaned: the familiar sound of the Remote Gate formed as well.

"Devil Hand!"

"Huoh!" Swallow Man gasped.

The Remote Gate apparently vanished while the whiteness began to dim and Martin could finally see what was happening on the field.

"What!"

There was a wide crater in a spot of the Cyber World that was still smoking plus a hole (where Swallow Man had surely hid to protect himself from the explosion): Lander was in one piece and panting as he held what seemed to be a slightly modified Giga Cannon Program Advance.

"What miracle is this?" Martin gasped.

"I'd placed a Monolith under his feet and warped him to my PET at the last second: another Monolith acted as replacement and got wiped off instead: as expected Swallow Man got confident and I sent Lander behind him to attack with this gun I'd developed, capable of piercing the armor, and he did, from behind. Zoan Gate Man showed up and forcibly pulled the guy inside with the Devil Hand before running off." Davis explained while sighing in relief.

"Whoa!" Ayase gasped in admiration.

"I owe you big, man. That was TOO close. Another instant and I would be a goner for sure." Lander cursed.

"Well. I've got plenty of backups of you so I can always rebuild you but I'm glad you got out in one piece. Lend me that, Charles, or we won't survive next time." Martin told him.

"Sure. Davis…"

"Already sent copies to you…"

"Good."

"Let's sit down and calm down." Martin suggested.

"Yeah. We really need to."

"Let's see what that villain's up to now." Charles grumbled.

"We're going to show them we're not afraid of them."

"Well said, ani – chan!"

"… "Mid-January, 2009… The "PW" project by them finally began using the FOD data… It was splendid. Even the almighty Ameroupe Navy was defeated by some of them after the Choina Air Force were beaten by another squad of them… The 3rd phase wasn't so successful yet numbers were on our side. At some point there was a leak into the Net Saviors and they got to know about who pulled the strings: Dark Land. Yeah. Dark Land, Mordor's pale imitator. And I forgot to say something. In October, Liquid hired one of the guys those idiots had rebuilt to create some ruckus, named Zoan Gate Man. With his new Legion 64 of Mettools, he could gather info from across the world. Well. However, the Foreign Department fools heading the project overdid it and got punished. Not wanting to let go of that power, however, they deserted at some point in February. However, that would prove to be useful. And forgot to say something again… Cyber Snatcher joined the party long with some carefree lil girl in December, too… I'm not forgetful: the excitement made me forget! Take that, eat that, and shut up!"… Hmpf."

"Mordor's pale imitator? Please." Ayase sighed.

"… "Late February. The deserters, now the Desert Wraiths, got in the move with the weapons at their disposal… Ah, wait. I'm forgetting something again… Ah yeah. Gate. The builder of the weapons… He got envious of Raiden getting my attention as of late and tried to "bury" him both socially and physically only to miserably fail and get deleted. However, some odd "God" Navis began to pop out and they were "coincidentally" based off the Nordic mythology. Coincidence? Nah. That Gate moron was alive and tried to use those to stall for time and heal. In the meanwhile, I got interested in the 2 women of the Desert Wraiths since they were "Queens"… And they had an amusing idea in mind… But I don't wanna spoil it here so I won't go into details. It sums up like this: we picked a guinea-pig and let them toy with it for a while 'till we used it to try the new system… As expected, the Net Saviors came and the experiment got busted but whatever. The data gained from it may be useful in the future for all we knew. And so the Desert Wraiths were over."…"

"Those…!" Ayase closed his right fist and growled.

"I know." Martin seemed to burning with rage.

"… "However, during all this period… A party had begun to grow quietly: we knew that they had a member named "Past" that stormed clubs and we thought he was being employed by Solid without the guy himself realizing it. The only hint was the name "Priest". We decided to ignore the guy but then, by early summer, happenings happened… A mysterious gang that reminded me of Doma showed up… They used imitations of Kaiba – sama's Duel Disks, too. And they were named "Rama". Their members had odd codenames and most of them hid their IDs under bike helmets. It looked promising: it'd seemed like a real evil gang had shown up to bust the Net Saviors!"… Well. Gotta admit, that at first, it gave off that vibe yet…" Charles muttered.

"Fortunately, that wasn't the case." Davis sighed in relief.

"Yeah. Else we'd all be goners by now." Lander seemed to shiver.

"We better not think of that." Ayase grimaced.

"Wise thinking." Martin grimly muttered.

"… Now, now. "As the affair progressed, I got to figure out the ID of their leader… Amusing yet, at the same time, disappointing. I won't bother to say why. Boil up ya brains! Tee – heh – heh! Two of their members deserted but the only woman there interested me so I hired her and helped her hide. The whole campaign had a LAME ending. But nevertheless, I felt like we had a chance now."… Hum. So the whole campaign didn't impress her that much… Or she didn't feel like talking about it, either…"

"Hmpf…" Ayase was unimpressed.

"… "Late July… Some weird UFOs like the one Nebula had used began to pop up… Liquid's investigations led to some Choina guys being led by an ambitious solo General… Ah, true. Gate got beaten once and for all by Raiden: I and Liquid and Bapgei saw it on live and it was amusing. If only the guy hadn't tried to go beyond his role… The fool. Fools don't live too long. Tee – heh – heh! And during that crisis… I gathered some fellow _dominatrix_ women… We picked our targets… We waited for the moment… And using a plan by Liquid… We lured them into our reach… A _dominatrix_ orgy ensued! We played a lot with those guys and had them taste excellent material… But, unfortunately, the former Net Agents had found our location and assaulted us along with Rama. We got caught and both Bapgei and Liquid had to run for it… And I got back to New Orleans yet again! The UFO affair was busted but I was satisfied that I'd finally managed to get my hands on my preys. I'd had to wait for years but I finally did it. And they can play cool all they want: I'm sure that deep inside they're still shivering at the display of my skill. If only you knew what fate was waiting for you years ago… Tee, heh, heh."… The damned sadist." Charles grumbled.

"Maybe there's something, some hint…" Martin remained calm and tried to keep them on track.

"Maybe." Davis didn't sound so sure of it.

"… "So. By late September, Liquid finally placed his Darkloids in solid bodies (they lost them when the DNN Battle) and formed the Obscure Legion. Creepy, creepy. Now the guys were stronger and had new tactics: better tactics! And a campaign began."… We know that."

"Guess it's about to end." Ayase muttered.

"… "Liquid, during the campaign, decided to prepare a surprising plan but it got wrecked by damned Solid. Yeah, that plan to confuse the FBI and all those by starting a secret fight within the Empire State and then having them decipher what had happened. But, no, it all ended up wrecked. How frustrating! The guys tried giving Rama a lesson but they only managed to force a guy to pull out from the brawl. And now we come close to the present. It ain't public knowledge but I got away from that turf again by using a clever double trick. Marcus and Jade as well. And in the meanwhile, Liquid is gonna keep you lot busy enough. But you won't find me so easily, I'm warning you lot. Heh, heh, heh. This kept you busy for some days, didn't it? Now boil your brains to figure out what part of this is fiction and what is reality. I'm evil. I said it. And if there are women who feel unsure about their instincts… Trust them! You're free to come try dominating anyone at a club… I still hold some control there and there. Figure out where yourself. Heh, heh, heh… Farewell!"… So it's finally ended and it was a waste of time. I knew it." Charles grumbled.

"And to top it off, inviting more sadists to show up…"

"As if we didn't have enough of them." Ayase fumed.

"Oh my~? It's the handsome hero of justice~! With a handsome fella~!"

"Who…? Ah! The new transfer student at Hikari's school…!"

Karazawa suddenly showed up there while looking amused: Charles frowned and then recognized her while the others directed mistrusting glares at her: her confidence seemed to dry up in an instant.

"G-guess I'm on the way…? W-well then, _sayonara_~!" She ran off as if she was guilt as charged.

"Girls." They all sighed in defeat.

19:39 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Hand over the money, you!"

"Kick 'im! Beat 'im!"

"Ya punk! Give us the credit cards!"

"Hey! What's going on there?"

"Damn. We got seen. I'm gonna beat ya!"

"If you won't talk… Eat this!"

"Ugrah!"

"And this!"

"Ogroh!"

"_Oyabun_!"

"What was "oyabun", Isaac?"

"In _Yakuza_ circles it's the Boss. So that's the _kobun_ or "disciple"."

"I see. Wanna brawl, spaghetti man?"

"Uwa~h!"

"Ugro~h… Run, damn it all!"

Nelaus had come to stroll to the gardens and found a rough man about 40 years old along with another on his mid-20s or so beating someone who'd collapsed into the ground: Nelaus called out and the older man, the boss, tried to punch him but Nelaus ducked and punched him in the stomach followed by a kick to the right knee: the younger man gasped while Nelaus asked Isaac for the meaning of the word: both then ran away (the disciple first) and Nelaus sighed in relief.

"Ugh… It hurts…" The collapsed figure muttered in English.

"Are you a foreigner?" Nelaus asked in English.

"Yeah… My name is Philip…"

It turned out the collapsed figure was Philip (wearing a black cap, a red scarf, a thick black coat, jeans, gray socks and white sneakers) but Nelaus and Isaac didn't seem to recognize him: he was holding his stomach and looked in pain as he tried to get up: Nelaus helped him.

"What accent is that? I feel like I know it."

"I'm from Sidney…"

"Sidney? Ah. Australian. Where do you come from?"

"W-well… Dormy Inn… I thought this was a safe place?"

"There are some exceptions. But 95% of the time it's quite safe: people generally behave." He told him.

"Ugh… At least I didn't get my wallet taken…"

"Do you want me to help you report this?"

"Huh? You're from here? Your English is good."

"I'm from Chicago. But I've been living here for a while. Isaac, my pal, helps me with complicated expressions."

"I see… You gotta be lucky, man…"

"Hmmm? You're in trouble?"

"Yeah. I got scouted by some guy who said that I'd become a magazine model and something and I got brought here yet… It turns out the guy is a damned pervert and in truth is plotting to sell me to some gay club: he already stole my passport and money…! And fucked me once…! He somehow found out I was gay but…!" He grumbled.

"Do you know the guy's name?"

"Dean Smith."

"Fine. Truth is… I'm a Net Savior. So I'm going to ask for an investigation on the guy… I'll take you to my place in the meanwhile." Nelaus told him.

"Whoa. Thanks. Sorry. What's your name?"

"My bad. Nelaus Rainon."

"Nelaus, huh… Has a curious ring to it."

"Guess that. Can you properly walk now?"

"Yeah… I feel better."

"Good. Follow me. Isaac: start searching. File a report and get permission to dig into the guy's PET and PC… Did the guy bring a laptop?"

"Yeah. It's surely full of illegal gay porn." Philip grumbled.

"Alright. Follow me."

"So… How long have you been here?"

"Ever since summer, 2008…"

"Year and a half, huh?"

"Yeah. How is it like, Isaac?"

"I've just found that Interpol of Australia issued a search & capture because they've got proof he's been selling illegal porn DVDs there and there. I reported the guy was in the hotel so a patrol is headed over there to arrest the guy."

"That was fast."

"Yeah. But let's wait on my home until they call for you to witness: but maybe it isn't needed if there's already a search & capture by Interpol to begin with. I'll go pick your passport and all."

"Thanks. I owe you big."

"Bah. I'm a Net Savior. It's my job to help others."

"The patrol is on its way there."

"Good. We're almost at my place. Another 2 minutes."

"Huff! It's cold, really! Being forced to jump from summer to winter is no fun, man." Philip grumbled.

"Ah yeah. Australia is on the southern hemisphere so it's now summer in there…"

"Yeah, man."

"The patrol's there: they've got the Interpol order so the hotel staff can't argue against that." Isaac reported.

"The guy's done for."

"Good!" Philip looked animated.

"Ah. Here we are. Wait a min: I'll turn off the alarm."

Nelaus and Philip reached Nelaus' place and he unlocked it with his key: he stepped in and disabled the alarm: Philip shut the door behind him while Nelaus turned on the central heater.

"Sit down on the living room sofa. I'll bring some hot chocolate I've got here: I'll do you well."

"Thanks."

"Don't mind it."

_Heh, heh, heh. That Smith guy is a fall guy Master arranged for. I practiced to alter my voice's tune. And since you've never seen my face then you can't recognize me. That Smith guy IS guilty and we used 'im… The guy can't argue 'cause they'll catch the guy red-handed… Nobody will believe what the guy says… They'll find my legit password and all there and my money and my visa… I got a legal visa and I did get here on the same flight as that Smith guy, purposely choosing the seat to the guy's right. So it's all a believable tale. The plan is for me to stay some days here and try to get close to Nelaus: maybe he's got some weakness that we can later exploit to our purpose… How _naïve_! You underestimate Master. And he's using a Navi double to make it look like I'm still there. Heh, heh, heh. _

"… Here's the chocolate." Nelaus brought a cup atop a platter and deposited it on the table.

"It's getting hotter… I'll shed the coat… And the scarf…"

Philip took out the coat and scarf: he wore a red wool shirt below it: he rubbed his hands to heat them up and then picked the cup: he made a sip of the chocolate and quickly left it on the table.

"Too hot… I need to wait a bit."

"There's no rush. So, Isaac?"

"Caught. This fellow's passport is there indeed. The guy hasn't offered any resistance and has been taken away. The PC has been found and will be taken to be analyzed. I asked for one of the policemen to drop by here and give us the passport and the visa."

"Good."

"Say… Can I stay a few more days? I've got a visa, after all. I'd like to see a bit around here…"

"Sure. I don't think it would be a problem."

"As long as you go back before it expires…"

"Of course I'll do so. I don't intend to stay more than one or two weeks: after that I'm going back." He shrugged.

"Alright."

"I think the house is hot enough by now. I'll stop the heater."

"Yeah. Do so."

"One of the patrol cars will drop by here with the documents."

"OK."

DING DONG

"Excuse me a moment."

Nelaus closed the door on his way out and headed into the lobby: he opened the door but left the security chain on.

"Rainon – kun? Here are the documents: and you can take care of that young man. The criminal already paid the rooms in advance."

"Alright. Thank you, Mr. Policeman."

"Don't mind it. We help each other. Good evening."

Nelaus whistled and headed back inside: Philip was calmly drinking his chocolate and Nelaus deposited the papers atop the desk: Philip calmly picked them and stuffed them on his coat's chest pocket which he closed with the zipper.

"Ah! Excellent chocolate. I need a shower next."

"Good. I'm going to lend you a spare pajama I've got. Shower's on the first floor: head on ahead."

"Alright."

Philip headed to the first floor and Nelaus soon followed: he entered his bedroom and picked a set of blue pajamas from a drawer in the clothes rack: he then left the PET on the charger.

"It'd seem they want my help to crack some passwords: I'll be back in a while."

"OK. See you."

Isaac left the PET and Nelaus entered the bathroom: he found Philip in the midst of his shower and Nelaus calmly left the pajamas there: he was about to step out when he stopped as if he'd had a sudden impulse: he unclothed and joined Philip in the shower.

"Hi."

"You had an impulse?" Philip guessed.

"Yeah. You said you were gay."

"Yeah. You're one, too?"

"Well… I've only had experience with a sex machine once… Ever since that I've been curious to know how gay sex really feels like… I thought you could teach me." Nelaus calmly admitted.

_How honest of you. Will make things easier._ Philip inwardly snickered.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah. I don't care."

Nelaus stepped forward and leant on the wall: Philip shrugged and rubbed his cock to harden it before he began to slide it inside of Nelaus: he gasped and closed his eyes: he seemed to be holding back the desire to hiss from the initial pain: Philip got inside and Nelaus calmly opened his eyes: he didn't seem that surprised anymore.

"Hey. Feels good, even."

"Of course it does, man. I'm going to move."

"Fine."

Philip began to slide out and in while closing his arms around Nelaus' waist: he groaned in a low tone of voice: Philip's face expression didn't change at all but he was inwardly snickering.

_I see. The guy didn't have the courage to ask Hikari & co. to let him join their gay sex ring. Heh, heh. Maybe he doesn't want to admit that he desired to try some real sex. That could be something we could exploit but it's too early to know. Bah... Let's give it some more days and I'm sure that the guy will end up confessing._

"I'm going off!"

"Go!"

Philip released inside of Nelaus: he pulled out his cock and Nelaus turned to look at it, with some stuff sliding down its length: Philip then got in the position Nelaus was at before: Nelaus quickly understood so he hardened his cock and slid it inside of Philip's ass: Philip let out a gasp of pleasure and Nelaus began to move: he soon got into the mood and despite being his first time, he quickly sped up while moaning.

"Too good… Feels too good!"

"Heh! Of course it feels good, man. Don't hold back, go all out."

"My body is moving on its own…! I can't even think… I'm going off!"

"Go off!"

Nelaus gasped as he went off and filled Philip's insides with his stuff: he panted and leant on Philip's back: Philip snickered but quickly changed his face to display slight amusement.

"See?"

"Man. I should've tried this before. I was missing a huge deal."

"You got lucky to find me, man."

"Truly. I owe you big now."

"Meh! Don't bother. You'll have plenty of chances of doing it with me: interested?"

"Of course. But one rule: no S&M or sex toys. I want to feel it raw and genuine."

"Same here." He quickly replied without hesitation.

"Thanks."

"Don't mind it. I'm going to show you how you do a blowjob."

"Show me the ropes."

"Not bad." He grinned.

Philip calmly got to his knees and began to suck along Nelaus' cock to harden it: he followed the pace without using his hands and Nelaus moaned and groaned from the pleasure: he released and panted while Philip simply stood up again.

"Whoa. That felt too good. Don't you use the hands?"

"Yeah, but I prefer to do it like this. It feels more challenging."

"I see."

"Try it out, man."

"Sure. I feel in the mood for anything tonight."

Nelaus got down to his knees and began to suck on Philip's cock but since he apparently didn't feel like he had enough skill he rubbed it with the right hand: Philip groaned and moaned.

_Heh, heh, heh. To think you're so easy to carry away… Master will be amused by my reports. For safety reasons I've only got an emergency line to be used in case of an emergency. Robots won't do since they're always on the watch for those. So I have to wait some days: at least I've got plenty of money and I don't intend to spend that much. _

"Going off!" Philip gasped.

He went off and Nelaus calmly stood up: he hugged Philip and closed his eyes as he approached his face: Philip grinned and did the same: they shared a passionate kiss while rubbing their cocks against each other before both released: Nelaus stopped the shower and both stretched as if they felt refreshed.

"Man. That felt good."

"Yeah. But gimme a break for tonight, OK?"

"Sure. We've got all the time in the world."

"That was a song in one of the old Bond movies, no?"

"Yeah. They had a funny touch to them."

"You needn't tell me. _Diamonds Are Forever_ was so funny… There were those 2 gays there, the glassy baldie and the sneaky thin guy… They proved to be lethal than Blofeld." Philip laughed.

"That elevator fight was cool. It felt claustrophobic, even. And that idea of switching identities with that Franks guy was a good one. Now, both _Casino Royale _and _Quantum of Solace _were good yet they seemed to lack something… Too much focus on locations, maybe…? Or thicker plots compared to the childish-like plots of the first ones… Well. Times change, tendencies change." Nelaus commented.

In the meanwhile, both had put on pajamas, socks and slippers: they headed downstairs while chatting.

"Can you set the table while I cook up something? Tomorrow I'll have to buy some more stuff."

"By the way, you live all alone with your pal?"

"Yeah. I'm financed by my Chicago uncle, a businessman. He wanted me to broaden my horizons and thought here would do. The only bad point of this city is… the randomness and the trolls."

_You needn't tell me. As if dealing with Cloud Man and Vincent wasn't enough you guys seem to have it 6 times harder. I'm glad not to be part of your club. _Philip inwardly sighed.

"Such a lil spoiled big corporation heiress who invents silly stuff and boasts equally silly stuff…"

"Such as?

"A flying mower hologram that chases you for 1024 meters."

"It feels so damned random."

"You needn't tell me. And the Mr. President tries over and over again but doesn't succeed in keeping her in line. Sometimes I wonder what we've done to deserve that." Nelaus told him as he began to prepare some things for dinner.

"I understand that. I had an extremely annoying pal in 1st middle that spent 90% of the time trolling. The teachers punished the guy over and over again but the idiot wouldn't learn." Philip sighed.

"Oh well. Let's save the gloomy talk for another day. Tonight is a night to celebrate. Here: I've got these spring rolls, Chinese rice and salad. I'll get better stuff tomorrow." Nelaus announced.

"Sounds yummy. We're gonna have fun, eh?"

"Yeah. But let's keep it a secret from Isaac: I don't wanna scare the guy."

"Deal. Let's have fun, man."

_Lots of fun. Heh, heh, heh. Soon I'll figure your greatest weakness! Hah!_


	9. Chapter 9: The Seventh Wave

**Chapter 9: The Seventh Wave**

09:14 AM (Japan Time), Sunday November the 17th…

"… Ah… Yeah… Not so quick, Blues..."

"Sorry, Saito. I felt somewhat impatient."

"Don't I always tell you to be more patient?"

"Don't quarrel, you 2…"

"Yeah, I know."

"Sometimes you don't seem to."

"Oh come on! Are you LISTENING?"

"I'm listening!"

"Then don't quarrel!"

Blues, Saito and Search Man were having sex in a bed placed within a bedroom somewhere: Blues had removed all armor save for his helmet and shades: Search Man only kept his helmet: Saito was in the middle between Blues (who was pumping in and out from behind) and Search Man (whom Saito was having sex with): Blues seemingly got impatient and Search Man scolded him: they didn't seem to pay attention to Saito's complains, who began to get annoyed.

"Sorry." Both apologized.

"You do a good combination: why quarrel to begin with?"

"Good point. Must be this building-up frustration…"

"You shouldn't vent that off on Saito. He's not guilty of anything."

"I knew that. It's just that…"

"Why don't we try to talk about something more cherry?"

"Such as?" Blues asked.

"Hmmm… Mowers." Saito snickered.

"Oh no. Not that monstrosity again." Blues groaned.

"What was it again?"

"A program shaped like a mower with arms having saws: it begins to chase you for 1024 meters while it yells at you…"

"Why 1024?" Search Man frowned.

"It's a parody. 1000 meters make a kilometer. But 1024 bytes make up a kilobyte."

"How stupid. That's because bits are only 2, and 2 to the power of 10 makes up 1024." Search Man grumbled.

"Sorry. Guess it wasn't a good idea. Hum… By the way, Search Man, did you manage to get rid of that troll?"

"The Commissioner relocated the guy to another base and was placed in charge of the broom to broom the yard. He thinks some disciplinary punishment should show that troll that the Sharo Net Saviors are serious to begin with." He sighed.

"You needn't tell me. We found an industrial spy amateur who also happened to be a troll and was starting to frustrate the employees: we sent the guy to the street once we caught him red-handed trying to steal some corporate data." Blues sighed.

"Sorry. Guess I made a bad choice again. Huff. What else could we talk about without feeling so frustrated…? I'm running out of ideas and I need to boil my brains." Saito muttered.

"Hmmm… Sorry. I can't think of anything now." Blues apologized.

"Ishikawa Goemon the 13th?"

"Lupin's pal? The _iai_ swordplay master… And the "zantetsuken" or "cutting-metal-blade"… Can split anything in half… I think there recently was a crossover special?"

"Oh yeah. A crossover with _Detective Conan_ that aired in late March. It wasn't bad: I was surprised to see how Jigen and Conan got along."

"And Mine was up to no good, as usual. Well. Not like she was up to some evil plot but she wanted to get ahead of Lupin. Makes you wonder why Lupin still tolerates her…" Blues muttered.

"Dunno. Maybe it's just her charm as a woman."

"Could be."

"Inspector Zenigata needs to work harder if he wants to see through Lupin's disguises, though."

"Indeed."

"Sounds like it was fun." Search Man commented.

"Yeah. By the way, are you about to go off?"

"Yeah. Here I go."

Search Man had been rubbing his cock with the right hand in the meanwhile and he released: Saito's cock got tightened and he released followed by Blues releasing inside of him: the group sighed in relief and undid that formation.

"Well. What do we do next?" Blues asked.

"Don't be so impatient."

"I'm not."

"You are."

"STOP!" Saito got annoyed.

"Sorry." Both quickly replied.

"Don't take out each other's frustration here. Save it for another time if you may or else I'm leaving. I can't relax if you're just venting all of the frustration." Saito warned with some annoyance.

"You're right. It's just that…"

"We can't seem to find a good time and place to do that." Search Man finished.

"Well, sorry to say it, but maybe you should do it during a training session or something? I tend to do it like that myself. During PE class, I stay behind to pick up the material but then take the chance to hit the sandbag for a while so as to vent it off." Saito told them.

"Good idea. Maybe we just need to take it out during training but make sure it doesn't affect our combat capabilities."

"Speaking of combat, Davis delivered us several copies of the Monolith Battle Chip… Did you get them, too, Saito?"

"Yeah. The opponent is turning serious. They're run out of patience for mere quarrels. Now they're like the Darkloids, Gospel or the WWW: they go for deletion. Nowadays, with all the backups and all, we could all be restored pretty easily but it leaves sequels. I still have mine from 5 years ago. Every October I feel it." Saito sighed.

"Sorry." Both apologized.

"It's alright." He looked elsewhere and looked gloomy.

"By the way, did you know? A text dump of _Twilight Princess_ revealed that some of Ganondorf's final dialogue was cut from the final version."

"Is that so? How odd. What did it say?" Saito was interested.

"Wait a moment… "When ones wielding the chosen power appear… One who shall fulfill its opposition shall be invariably born… That's the fate granted to you lot, the crest-holders, by those Gods you believe in. As long as crest-holders appear in the world… A bloodshed age shall happen again and again… Don't think that it's all ended… Think of this as the beginning of the blood-soaked history of light and dark!"… Those last two lines are what were left in the game… But the first ones seem to grant a hint of why Ganondorf exists… Or warn that, in any age, crest-holders shall have to face an opposing force…" Blues told him.

"Hmmm… Interesting. So maybe by the time the next big game happens then we'll get some more info…" Saito looked interested.

"Could be."

"By the way… Prism Man told me he found Zoan Gate Man roaming around the City Hall: he tried to fight him but had Legion 64 on its whole assault him as he fled: Prism Man managed to repel them but lost his track… He later carried an in-depth exploration of all of the City Hall systems along with a real-world team yet there was nothing out of place: maybe the guy was just scouting… Or it was a red herring… They checked the staff lists in case either Izono or Anaya had infiltrated there as bureaucrats but that wasn't the case." Search Man explained.

"Hum. It could be a red herring, too."

"Indeed. But it's better to prevent than to heal."

"Gotta agree with you on that…" Blues muttered.

"Hmmm… Let's do this. I'll ride on Search Man and you, Blues, will do me a blowjob."

"Sounds fun. Let's do it."

"Heh. Come."

Search Man hardened his cock and helped Saito sit down on his waist as the cock slid inside of Saito: he let out of a moan of pleasure as he took the whole of it inside of him: Blues then began to lick Saito's cock head to tease him: he laughed at the sensation while Search Man began to move Saito up and down: Blues moved into the real deal and began to suck the cock: Saito moaned from the pleasure and Search Man snickered as he rubbed Saito's nipples as well.

"Ah… Ah…! Too good… I'm about to… go off!"

Saito let out of a sigh of pleasure as he released and filled Blues' mouth: his released tightened Search Man's cock and he released as well inside of him: he helped him rise and then placed him at his right: Blues got to Saito's right and pulled the blankets over them: groans and moans rang out.

"Let's do some more games…" He chuckled.

"Heh. I'm in. Too bad, Saito. Now we're in the mood!"

09:29 AM (Japan Time)…

"… Are you sure you and Laika aren't cheating? I've got the feeling that I always end up like this 90% of the time."

"For the last time, Enzan. None of us are cheating. It's just that you're still reluctant to these rules I came up with."

"Like Netto says, Enzan… I've kept count on a paper and the numbers are the same for each of us. Or are you admitting, once again, that you'd rather be a sadist?"

"I'm not a sadist!"

"Well then, why do you have it so hard to follow the rules and ALWAYS complain when you get to do the role?"

"Well, that's…"

"Save the quarrels for later, guys. I came here to relax, not to listen to your complains. Settle it or I'm leaving."

"Whoa! No need to get angry, Netto, man!"

"Netto has a point. Let's try to be constructive here."

"Were it so easy!"

"What did I say about complains? I think you need this."

"Whoa! It tickles! Don't lick my cock's head!"

Nettto, Enzan and Laika were having fun in another bedroom: Enzan had been tied with some rope over and below his nipples which kept his arms immobile: he also had some keeping his wrists immobile and a blindfold had been placed over his eyes: he'd been complaining while Netto and Laika argued that it was pointless: Netto began to lick Enzan's cock head to try to get him into the mood all of a sudden.

"Your nipples miss my fingers, Enzan." Laika grinned as he began to rub his index fingers over them.

"Stop it! It tickles! Oh come on!" He laughed.

"See? You can be pretty _tsundere_ when you want to. There's no need to do that here." Laika told him.

"W-well, that's… Whoa!"

Enzan suddenly went off and Netto calmly licked the white stuff to then swallow it: he grinned and began to lick Enzan's nipples while Laika teased his cock's head again.

"Don't tease me that much! Man!"

"Sorry, Enzan. But we feel like it. Don't you do the same when either of us has to do the masochist role?"

"W-well, that's…"

"Guilty as charged." Netto giggled.

"Oi!"

"Mr. Smiles dropped by." Laika chuckled.

"Your humor is, always, lacking."

"That a compliment?"

"How's that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Maybe you should ask Mr. Smith. He wants his doom back."

"What the heck? And here I thought you couldn't stand trolls."

"Trolls I can't but some slight humor from time to time I can. What I can't stand is being bombarded with idiocies each and every day of my life."

"Enzan misses something… How about we go for it, Laika?"

"Good. Let's level up. Maybe Arceus will bless us."

"Oh come on." Enzan grumbled.

"I've gotta admit that the battle music is one of the creepiest ever: and its power is incredible. That "creation" sequence in HGSS spooked me to no end, really…" Netto muttered.

He'd lifted Enzan and slid underneath him to then stuff his cock into Enzan's ass: Laika did the same and picked Enzan's cock with his right hand to rub it while both moved: Enzan groaned and moaned from the sensation.

"O~h…! Too good to be true…! It feels good…!"

"See? We'd done this anyway: there was no need to play _tsundere_."

"Fine…" He fumed and looked elsewhere.

"That pride isn't needed either."

"Says the serviceman!" Enzan grumbled.

"Enzan… Let's have the party in peace." Netto sighed.

"Then tell that guy to stop trying to play clever."

"I won't."

"What was that?"

"Enzan! Please! I'm trying to relax and have fun! Don't spoil it! Is it that hard?" Netto insisted.

"W-well…"

"Stop being so prideful: it looks like we can't do better than fighting each other over stupid stuff."

"Alright." He sighed in defeat.

"About time." Laika muttered.

"You too behave, Laika. It looks like we're dancing to Twilight's flute tune and about to slaughter each other."

"Yikes. W-well, I…" That caught him off-guard.

"So? Can we continue?" Netto insisted.

"Y-yeah. Sorry. It's just that…"

"Calm down, guys! Forget about those rascals and let's have fun."

"Alright." Both replied.

"See? Was it THAT hard?"

"No."

"By the way, Enzan… I know it… That you've got a pretender…"

"P-pretender? Me?"

"Your other self."

"HUH?"

"That wouldn't surprise me." Laika chuckled.

"What the heck was that?" Enzan asked.

"Dunno. Maybe I felt like it."

"That's not an answer!"

"Don't worry! It's a joke, man. Cheer up."

"Were it so easy!"

"Now, now." Laika tried to calm them down.

"Whoa!"

Enzan suddenly released so both guys also did the same: they detached and grinned as they both began to lick Enzan's nipples again: he laughed from the feeling.

"Stop teasing me, I say!"

"Too bad, Enzan."

"Tease Guy dropped by."

"Yeah, sure… Hah, hah, hah! It tickles! Stop it, man! I'm telling you to stop it already!"

"Nope. I like this." Laika snickered.

"It helps shatter that pointless _tsundere_ mask."

"W-well, that's… Hah, hah, hah!"

"Confirmed. Enzan is weak to teasing." Laika grinned.

"Yeah. As usual."

"Save me the ironies!" Enzan protested.

"Too bad, irony – chan." Laika laughed.

"Oh come on!"

"Come on oh!" Netto made up a pun.

"Beware, Enzan. Diet Man strikes back."

"Oh come on! Save me the diet talk: I've lost track of how many I've experimented with over the years!"

"Your body seems to say they were rather successful." Laika slid his right hand down the right side of the torso.

"Yeah. You're so thin and muscular. You need more gym workup." Netto added as he scanned with it with the sight.

"And you'll become KO Enzan!"

"KO Enzan? Oh come on! Hah, hah, hah!"

"One hit KO! By KO Enzan!" Netto played announcer.

"Maybe you need to do a narration play at Nico Nico."

"Of _Metal Gear Solid 4_." Netto laughed.

"Whoa!"

Enzan released again and both guys grinned as they pulled the blankets over him: groans ensued.

"We're gonna tease your cock next." Laika laughed.

"Get ready for the teasing morning, Enzan." Netto giggled.

"Stop it already, guys! Hah, hah, hah! It tickles!"

18:29 PM (Japan Time), Thursday November the 21st…

"… Huff. What a tiresome week."

"That tiresome it was?"

"Yeah. Reason? Miss Heiress. And B class' transfer student: she's annoying to no end with her attempts to tease us. Girls. I don't wanna even try to bother to understand them."

"Why are you hanging out with that orange-haired girl, then?"

"She pressed me a year ago, more or less, and I didn't have the courage to refuse."

"Same over here… At least she didn't try to rush it."

"I see the point. And, apart from that?"

"Sheesh. Yamato Man on Monday, Cosmo Man on Tuesday and Cloud Man yesterday… I had to repel each of them and they didn't make it easy despite our training and skill… They're getting deadlier."

Nelaus was sighing as he walked along the gardens with Philip (who looked interested and surprised): he and Isaac seemed to be pretty tired or blown up: both sat down on a bench.

_Hmpf. Of course: if we show everyone than even the almighty Net Saviors barely escape alive from the battles then fear will spread, followed by rumors exploiting the social networks such as "I heard one of the best got busted 5 times this week" or "They're about to come for us!"… Panic easily spreads and those guys can't halt it. Master's gotten sharp at last: he was taking a lot of shots into the dark as of late. I know he's got some plan in mind but I don't know the slightest about it. Maybe the others don't, either, for safety. Cloud Man might make a slip of the tongue and the whole grace of it may be ruined. _

"Hi, Nelaus."

"You looked busted, too."

"Yeah."

"Hey! Is that…?"

"Yeah. A guy I met… Philip from Sidney…"

Netto and Saito happened to meet with Nelaus there: Philip was absorbed in his self-gloating and didn't notice them.

"Wrong! Nelaus! That's Darth Bapgei!"

"WHA~T?"

"Huh?" He looked up.

"Not so fast!"

Isaac suddenly materialized behind Bapgei and tackled him into the ground to then immobilize him with a _judo_ hold.

"W-what the hell?" He gasped.

"So! You were Bapgei." Nelaus fumed.

"What!" He gasped again.

"Hum." Blood Shadow wasn't impressed.

"The guy's got the face, yeah…" Sigma chuckled.

"What was that?" He demanded.

"Sigma says you've got a face fitting for a villain."

"The bludger!" He growled.

"So that's ex – _senpai_'s plot, huh? Make you approach me, stick around me and try to find out some weakness to exploit… And all those intense evenings were just to do that."

"Intense evenings?" Isaac asked.

"I'll tell you later. What do we do?"

"Let's call Omega." Netto suggested.

"Yeah. We can use this guy to draw Twilight out."

"What did you say?" Philip demanded again.

"We're gonna ring Omega and you're gonna help us draw your petty Master out of his turf." Nelaus translated.

"Sheesh."

"Commander Omega, sir! We've seized Bapgei!"

"What! I'm coming there ASAP."

A purplish portal formed and Omega rushed out: he looked at Philip with an unimpressed glare while Philip growled and tried to look fierce but he wasn't concentrated enough.

"Hum. I see. Well then, I'm going to bring you to our place for a while: I'm sure you've got an emergency transmitter somewhere. That should work to lure your petty boss to our place."

"Hmpf!"

Omega formed a couple of handcuffs and handcuffed Philip before forcing him to stand up: he directed an annoyed glare at the group but none of them were impressed.

"Let's go."

Omega pulled the guy into the portal: the world became a purple tunnel extending into the infinite across a pitch-black space: both of them were gripped by some force and shot forward: one instant later both were out of it and into a small metallic cubic room illuminated with fluorescent tubes on the ceiling.

"And here we are."

"Hmpf." He played the unimpressed but it was obvious that the sensation had impressed him.

"So you're Philip Erston. Dr. Spimer told me about you." Vadous stepped in at that moment through a door in front of them.

"Hmpf. And you're the famed "kyoudai"."

"Yeah. Bring the guy to the adjacent room: I'm going to search him because I'm sure he's got an emergency transmitter somewhere just in case." Vadous ordered.

"Roger. Move it, Carnival punk."

"Hmpf!"

"Acting unimpressed won't help you win battles."

"Says the feral!"

"What was that?" He began to get annoyed.

"Ahem, ahem." Vadous cleared his throat.

"Alright. We'll settle this later, Mr. Smith."

Omega had Philip walk out into a curved metallic corridor with some arches on it and having armored doors on both sides of it: Vadous punched a password into a control panel next to one labeled "GUEST ROOM 11" and it opened.

"In you go."

Philip fumed and stepped inside of the sparsely decorated room that had just a bed, a small table, a chair and that was it: the door to an adjacent bathroom could be seen.

"Wait outside, Omega. You need to cool down."

"… Fine."

"Don't close the door. The guy might try to pull some stunt. Shut down the portal machine and password-lock it."

"Alright."

Omega stepped out while Vadous had Philip sit down on the bed: he removed his armor's gloves and arms' armor to apparently work better: he picked a chair and sat down in front of Philip.

"I can strip you naked and search you or you tell me where it is."

"Hmpf. Coat inner pocket." He grumbled.

"Fine."

Vadous searched the pocket and found indeed a Nokia cell-phone there that was on: he accessed the contacts page and found only one number there that had a prefix.

"Prefix 61, Australia… Good."

He pressed it and the call was established: it soon patched.

"Bapgei. Did you run into trouble?"

"Into me. Liquid."

"_Kyoudai_~!" He got pissed off in the instant.

"Come get your precious handsome back. You know where."

"HMPF! How perfect! I was itching to give you a lesson!"

"The same tricks your pawns use won't work on me."

"HMPF!"

"Plasma cannon RAYs won't work either. I'll ram them with your own RAY prototype of 2 years ago."

"What? You've still got that? Hah! Fine! Keep that piece of junk: my Plasma RAY will scorch you!"

_I've lost track of what they're saying to begin with. I think they're discussing about the Metal Gear RAY but… By the tone in Master's voice I guess he got annoyed for real again. _Philip inwardly sighed.

"Are you coming or not?" Vadous purposely yawned.

"NYAMALASALASHA~H!"

_Master… Oh come on… Why can't you cool it down, man? _

"I'm coming there! And I'll BUST you!"

"Come anytime, Liquid. Hmpf."

19:08 PM (Japan Time)…

"… _Kyoudai_~… _Die~_…"

"That pun's old."

"Where's Bapgei!"

"Ernston? Waiting in a guest room."

"How did you figure out his name and all?"

"Dr. Spimer did."

"The Frenchman? Damn it. I knew I wasn't taking them seriously."

"Hmpf."

Twilight materialized inside of a room somewhere where Vadous was waiting at.

The room was easily over several tens of meters tall and huge: it was a gigantic cylinder-shaped room which had several catwalks and stairs crossing across it from different heights and directions plus large fans set on the walls: the ground was a mere metallic grid which seemingly allowed a large bulk below it to expel heat: most of the room was unlit but the catwalks had fluorescent paint on the ground and handrails to mark them: the ceiling had two small metallic grids as well shaped like opposing halves of an hexagon.

"Well then. Turns out he thought that there was more to the gay club in Melbourne where Rama's "Past" found you at about a year ago. So he sent Colonel Morgan to question the former owner in prison. And put some pressure so he confessed about how Ernston was working there of his own will and you'd gotten interested on him. From there it wasn't too hard to guess he was Bapgei." Vadous shrugged.

"Shit. I forgot about that moron altogether!"

"Since it was lil fry…"

"Shaddup! I've got future tech! I'll let you witness some of it!"

"Hmpf."

"…_Drill a hole into the Universe… Through any direction, without exhaust, freely shift… __You light pillars of destruction that pierce through the world… _Lazy Laser!"

"What? Whoa!"

Twilight suddenly chanted something before announcing an attack: he built up energy just as a wormhole with spinning bluish edges and blackish insides formed in front of him: he shot a powerful surge of yellow energy inside of it and vanished yet another wormhole formed just above Vadous, who had to jump backwards to dodge the incoming laser beam: it destroyed the spot of the walkway he'd been at yet another wormhole formed beneath it to retrieve the laser: a new one formed mid-air aiming NE and shot the laser only to be retrieved yet again by a new wormhole parallel to this one: a wormhole opened behind and beneath Vadous and the laser shot skywards to enter a new wormhole: yet another wormhole appeared and aimed SW in a continuous manner, shattering through the walkway and hitting a wall a bit below: they essentially formed a cage keeping Vadous' movements highly limited.

"Fuck. This is no kidding. I can barely move!"

"Eat this!"

"Not so fast! Dream Aura!"

"Grah!"

Twilight suddenly warped behind him while leaving a Mega Cannon to continue shooting the laser on his stead: he tried to stab his swords into Vadous from behind but got repelled by a Dream Aura: Vadous formed a Yo-yo Battle Chip and opened one of his portals to shoot it inside of the portal: the exit appeared behind the Mega Cannon and it was destroyed so the laser stopped and all wormholes closed.

"Hmpf. That was but one."

"One? Shit."

"Feeling the despair?" He sneered.

"Oh shut up, Liquid. Go scold Ocelot."

"Hmpf! _Gathering afterglow, shining blades... Sparkle of light that announces the demise... Tear the horizon and return to nothingness... _Demise Light Blades… AKA… Zero Blade!"

Twilight formed some purple-edge triangles with a green dot on their middle and they combined to give shape to a large blade that he held over his head: some openings formed and purple energy began to glow and shine from within it: he swung it forward and a stream of purple energy preceded by a sonic boom shot forward over their heads: he then shot forward and plunged his blades into the Dream Aura: it turned purple and then gray: it was blown away like cinders and Vadous recoiled, looking nervous.

"Damn it. They're unpredictable. The stream is there to impede you from running away upwards…" He grumbled.

"Heh. _Heat waves that actively burn like the Sun... Burning passion, undulating Inferno... Only ashes shall remain in Purgatory's flames... _Sunshine Nova!"

Two endless pillars of flames formed behind each combatant thus limiting their fighting space: Twilight shot forward and Vadous jumped upwards to dodge: he plunged into the pillar and some embers jumped off from the impact: he quickly emerged at a slightly higher height while surrounded by a fiery aura: he moved NW and plunged into the second pillar: some embers jumped off again: he finally stopped in mid-air between both pillars.

"What?"

He expanded his body and some fiery spheres began to come out while drawing patterns and acting in groups: they formed several curved lines with small gaps between each sphere and they kept on expanding: Vadous cursed and tried to take refuge in the small gaps yet it was hard to predict when would the next gap appear and where: Twilight was roaring.

"Shit."

The patterns suddenly gave way to three streams that formed a "T" shape and now the way to dodge was to exploit the corners: the pattern changed yet again and now was two diagonal streams aiming SW and SE respectively so the middle was the safe spot: the pattern returned to the "T" shape and then to the diagonal shape and kept on cyclically shifting between each other: Vadous drew a blade and loaded it up with electricity to then shoot it at Twilight's chest: he got caught off-guard and he fell into the ground: the flame pillars vanished as well and Vadous panted.

"Heh… Not yet! You've got to suffer more!"

"Damned sadist!" Vadous growled.

"_Mutually attracting magnetisms burst open… Desire it all wish it all… Deprive… Rise… Grand arms…_ Super Heavy Magnetic Exploding Star!"

"Bit too long for my taste…" Vadous ironically muttered.

Twilight formed a small purple sphere on his hands and then flung it at the middle of the air: it suddenly began to grow while trying to suck in everything around it: Vadous formed spikes on his boots' soils and plunged them into the walkway while Twilight equipped "Heavy Boots" from the _Zelda_ games: Vadous could see a ring-shaped wave forming on the edge and quickly shrinking and vanishing before reaching the center: it soon became about 3 meters tall to Vadous' astonishment and shrank to about two thirds or more of its original size and imploded, with that energy hitting Vadous and Twilight and pushing them both against the far walls of the area: some traces of smoke remained on the spot where the sphere had been at.

"Damn it. Just like a real star…!" Vadous groaned.

"Heh… More… More…! More nightmares await you…"

"Bloody hell. This is turning dire, even."

"What do I do? Boss." Omega called out.

"I can still handle somehow: I've got a Monolith, too."

"Alright. But I better remain close by."

"Better do so."

"…_The revolving reincarnation spins life... And crosses the irreversible curtain... You soul: return to the living world... _Resurrection!"

Twilight began to build up purplish energy and then formed a column of energy that was of a pinkish shade: some small columns of white energy and sparkles formed within it as well and a shape began to form inside: the light ended and it turned out it was none other than Shade Man yet his eyes were empty and glowed with a crimson glow: he chuckled and shot forward faster than he used to be: Vadous ducked but Shade Man jumped into the air and then dived legs-first into Vadous, pushing him backwards: he jumped again, flipped and landed behind him but Vadous quickly plunged one of his blades into the right knee, piercing through the whole of it and making it be deleted: the lower right leg collapsed into the ground and deleted but Shade Man didn't seem to feel any pain as he tried to bite Vadous' neck but was repelled by the armor there and his fangs broken.

"I see. It's an imitation. It had to be." Vadous muttered.

"Resurrection!"

"What? Again!"

"Grawl!"

"Beast Man next?"

Beast Man appeared next but Omega suddenly dropped down and swung his blade in several attacks faster than the eye could see: Beast Man was split into pieces and deleted.

"Zan-datsu. Slice 'n cut. Like Raiden." He taunted Twilight.

"Hmpf! Feral. The party wouldn't be complete sans you bastard."

"Same thing over here, Liquid." He taunted back.

"Nyagra~h!"

"Ugro~h!"

Vadous had managed to duck to avoid Shade Man's arm swings and plunged both blades through the chest: Shade Man quickly got deleted and nothing was left behind so both faced Twilight.

"Hmpf! I've got a last one to show to you before I scram. I'm on the middle of some important preparations… Soon the federal agencies of Ameroupe shall kneel before Neo Gospel!"

"Sounds like something the guy would do?" Omega asked Vadous in a whisper.

"Could be. And could be a red herring too." Vadous simply replied.

"I can hear you!"

"So what." Both countered.

"Hmpf. _The hum of devouring flying insects resounds… Endless hunger's fangs… Devour and chew it all…_ Destiny Fang!"

Twilight jumped into the middle of the air and formed two small objects at both sides: they had a grayish body shaped like a mouth and were filled with many teeth: their top was yellow: a small sphere of energy formed atop Twilight and he began to throw what seemed to be a winged mass of energy at them: hordes of flies began to be swallowed up by the fangs and slowly grow in size: they quickly became almost 2 meters tall each and now they rather looked like discs having 2 circles of outer and inner teeth on their insides: they flew away left and right while Twilight himself turned invisible: both gasped as they headed for them and Omega quickly cut the handrail to their right: they jumped off as both mouths clashed and met each other, spinning and apparently chewing: both landed in an lower walkway and sighed in relief.

"Too close! That surely was an OHKO attack!" Vadous gasped.

"Shit. The guy's not wasted the time. Speaking of which…" Omega grumbled.

"Warning. Guest Room 11's door has been destroyed."

"I knew it." Vadous shrugged.

"No use chasing the guy: he's going to pick Bapgei and run off. But at least we made it sound like we knew who he was but we don't know where he's at: that plays on our benefit." Omega whispered.

"I know."

"Dimensional Converter transfer detected. No hostile presence remains on board. Cancel battle protocol."

"So? What do we do now?" Omega asked.

"Hmmm… Let's send a warning to the agencies through the Ameroupe Net Police… Let's say that there is a possibility but we don't have enough info to confirm or deny it. That should have them raise the guard but if Twilight has seeded insiders in the meanwhile that won't do them much good to begin with." Vadous decided.

"Good. We should repair the damage, no?"

"Good point, too. Let's dispatch the repair nanomachines."

"Trill and Iris were on Internet City, no?"

"Yeah. So they didn't hear any of the scandal."

"Do we tell the guys?"

"Why not?"

"Alright. I'll go tell them. And I wouldn't be surprised if the guy plans on coming out in person again to catch us off – guard with these. I'll send the video data as soon as it's ready. That should give us some insight into how to dodge or counter those." Omega exposed.

"Wise thinking."

"Meh. Just boiling my brains…"

"Guess that."

"I'm off."

Omega warped out and Vadous sighed as he climbed a set of metallic steps into another walkway higher and to the left of the one he'd been battling in: he headed for a door to the left that opened: he crossed a small corridor and then came out into the main corridor: Lartes rushed to his encounter from the right.

"You alright? Boss."

"Somewhat. I need to lie down for a bit. I feel on the edge."

"No wonder. Today was too dire."

"Yeah. I hate to admit it, but the rascal's level danger increased tenfold in just a few minutes."

"We're not omnipotent, Boss."

"I knew that yet… Oh forget it. I'm going to lie down and play Halo 3: ODST to vent it off." Vadous sighed.

"Alright. Don't forget to take off the armor. And don't have a heavy lunch either. I need to analyze your nanomachines data to make sure you didn't come close to a heart attack. High stress can lead to a bad result in a lot of cases." Lartes warned.

"By the way, Lartes… Wasn't your specialty psychology and nanomachines, anyway?"

"I'm cooperating with one of my medical college colleague that's become a renowned physician… I thought I'd told you already." Lartes explained to him.

"Could be… I've got bad memory for these things. Oh well."

Vadous headed away while Lartes sighed and returned the way he'd come (from the right while Vadous headed left): he reached an opened door and stepped into a small lab having a desk with a laptop on it, a wheeled chair and a cupboard: he closed the door and sat down on the chair to check out some data on the laptop.

"Let's wait until it finishes compiling…"

"Will Boss be alright, Lartes?" Kir Osh stepped in.

"Could you knock before entering?" He sighed.

"Sorry. I was worried."

"No need to worry. If he has a proper rest then he'll be alright. By the way, tell Dragon to behave and not to put him nervous."

"Alright. I'll do what I can."

Kir Osh headed out and Lartes resumed working.

_Huh? What's this? The PC's been picking the signal of an unregistered chip implant since some time ago and I hadn't noticed? How odd. I removed Junior's implant at his request because Twilight had manipulated it too many times by then and he wasn't afraid of facing his past anymore. Senior doesn't have one, either. So, who? Hmmm… _

He typed some commands and brought up some data yet most of it seemed to be censored because it'd been broken down into the raw pixels that made it up.

_Twilight implanted one into someone? Who? I need to figure how to get across this censoring. Wait. Password input… Hmpf! Knowing the fool Twilight is… "IQ – sama"… It worked. As expected. Hikawa Tooru? By all the… Twilight, the fucking son of a bitch…! So you did that earlier this year without us noticing, huh? You kidnapped the 3 of them at different days and times and tortured them yet you used their chip implants to manipulate their perceptions and make it look like it was a game between friends, hence why it wasn't registered as a trauma… It felt like mundane and routine…! Maybe that was an attempt at a means to capture them without us noticing that you planned to use when the summer orgy but decided for another method…! You depraved sick rascal…! One of these days you'll be left in an isolation cell and we'll see you feel the consequences of your evil in your own flesh!_

Grumbling under his breath, he leant backwards, fuming, and impatiently tapping the edge of the desk: he sighed and stood up to walk out as if to vent the bad mood off.

_Calm down. We'll handle that later. Now we gotta make sure there are no negative effects to Boss' health. And then we need to issue warnings to try to be ready for the imminent strike. _

"Hey! Lartes. Did you send me this mail? "Come ASAP."…" Kir Osh returned there.

"No."

"Not Sigma… The guy's behaving, so… Cloud Man. Huff."

"Is it specifically for you or…?"

"Ah no! Now that I look at it… It's for a lot of people…. That lousy neophyte hacker…!" He grumbled.

"Lovely." Lartes sighed.

"My bad. I'll be on bay 4. There's a shuttle the main stabilizer of which acts funny. I gotta fix it." He sighed.

"Don't be in a rush. There are another 15 available."

"I know. See ya."

Kir Osh headed off again and Lartes heard him grumbling under his breath yet loud enough to be heard.

"A servant would rather…" A voice began to tell Kir Osh.

"Work. Or else…" Kir Osh hushed in an annoyed voice.

"Y-yes, sir." The voice gulped.

"Dragon…!" Lartes groaned.

There were hurried footsteps and Lartes returned yet again into his office to resume working with the laptop.

_Data sent. I now have to wait for my colleague to analyze it. But I've got a bad feeling about this… Twilight's ready for a coup. But we can't know exactly where and when. And I've got the feeling it's gotta be deadlier than what happened at NYC… Damn it all. I feel so powerless…!_


	10. Chapter 10: Surging out

**Chapter 10: Surging out **

09:44 AM (Japan Time), Friday November the 23rd…

"… Alright. Let's see… Ooyama – kun!"

"Y-yes, _sensei_!"

"Who was the leader of the Russian Revolution?"

"Eh, eh… Sergei Kaput!"

"Wrong. Vladimir Lenin!"

"I'm sorry, _sensei_!"

"Fine. Tamashita – san! Who were the 2 men that struggled to lead the URSS after Lenin's death?"

"Yes, _sensei_! Stalin and… Makarov?"

"Stalin is right. But you got the second wrong. Anyone else can tell me the answer? Hum. Rainon – kun."

"Yes, sir. Trotsky was the other man."

"Good. Can someone tell me which of them earnt the mistrust of Lenin before his death?"

The 4 – A Class was in the midst of a history class: the blackboard had information about the Russian Revolution written on it yet, given the title "review" atop it, it was obvious that they were reviewing a lesson in light of an upcoming exam.

"Hum. Junior – kun."

"Yes, _sensei_. Stalin was mistrusted and Lenin even said that he wanted him removed." Netto explained.

"Do you have anything to add to that, Senior – kun?" The teacher asked next.

"Yes, _sensei_. It was no wonder, seeing how then Stalin rose to power and initiated some fearsome purges." Saito added.

"Huff." Dekao sighed.

"Trotsky, alright." Aura inwardly muttered as she reviewed her earlier notes.

"There's something you're skipping." Someone announced.

"Who?" The teacher glanced at the class.

"N-nobody said that, sir." Hikawa looked around.

"_Yaoi_ and abortion were legalized. Lenin's Sharo was the first to establish both of those rights." The voice announced next.

"It's coming from the speakers…?"

"Masuda – sensei, what does this mean?" Another teacher came in.

"Ah! Onda – sensei. I didn't do anything."

"How odd. Then who did that? The employee in charge of the PA?"

"Maybe, but…"

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! CLACK!

Some loud beeps rang out followed by the sound of doors automatically locking: everyone gasped as the shutters automatically descended and the windows got locked as well: the noises seemed to echo across the whole school, even: the speakers crackled and then a hum began to ring out across them.

"The Grand Master is blessed and divine and kind. We miserable worms must kneel before the Grand Master to earn His forgiveness. We must destroy this chaotic world to allow Hell to rise into the surface. Repeat with us, repeat with us…" A cold, metallic and monotonic voice began to ring out.

"Grand Master, Grand Master…" Dekao began to mutter yet he looked like he wasn't doing that of his will.

"Uh… Gruh… Grand Master, Grand Master…" Masuda began to mutter next.

"T-the… Grand Master…" Onda followed him.

The rest of the students covered their ears and rushed for the doors: Nelaus tried to tackle one but got repelled: he grumbled and began to kick it with his right foot yet it wouldn't even rock.

"The Grand Master's name is… IQ – sama! Long live IQ – sama! Loath IQ – sama! Bless IQ – sama! Kneel before Her Grace!"

"IQ – sama, IQ – sama…" The three of before began to chant.

"Damn it. It's Twilight! The damned bastard's intending to brainwash the whole school!" Nelaus cursed.

"Firewalls have been set all across the Cyber World! We're trying to find a way through them!" Isaac growled.

"The frequency seems to target mentally weak people. But with time it can affect mentally strong people too." Roll warned.

"How much time?"

"I can't know yet. I haven't analyzed these waves fully yet."

"Guts, IQ – sama, guts, IQ – sama…" Guts Man began to mutter.

"And it affects Navis too. At least we can use Barrier – type Battle Chips to bounce it off before it intrudes our CPUs." Roll added.

"Diamond Blade~!"

There was the sound of an explosion and the left door unlocked so they rushed out into the corridor: there were some sounds outside and the building's colors began to distort.

"Bad news: the whole school's locked inside of a DA. And not your everyday one. It's full of jammers impeding access from the outside to begin with." Blood Shadow grumbled.

"Fuck. So we gotta handle it ourselves! Isaac! Break the rest of door-locking firewalls with your Diamond Blade and let's try to evacuate as much people as possible from the classrooms!"

"Yeah. We can take shelter in the yard."

"There are no speakers there so we should be safe." Netto added with a sigh of relief.

"Leave it to me… Blood, Sigma! You could go figure out if we can enter the DCs from here."

"Alright."

"Someone should check the PA center." Felicia pointed out.

"I'll go. Sigma. Handle the DCs."

"Roger."

"Mugro~h! I managed to open our classroom." Balrog announced.

"You guys OK?" Arushi rushed out of the B Class along with Eboshi and Karazawa.

"Somewhat. Roll. Did you figure out anything new?"

"Yeah. If you expose yourself to this wave for more than 5 minutes more or less it can also affect strong willed persons." Roll reported.

"Another reason to get everyone outta the classrooms soon and go into the yard. Lead the charge, Nelaus. We'll go assist Blood and Sigma in case they run into trouble." Netto told Nelaus.

"Roger."

"What the heck is going on?" Karazawa asked.

"You're not paying attention, are you?" Scherezade fumed.

"What was that, cha?"

"Quarrels later!" Yaito snapped at them.

"By the way, I saw a figure on the yard." Arushi told them.

"Ex – _senpai_: who else?" Nelaus sighed.

"How about we go bust the guy along the way?"

"We need to think of another refuge, then."

"Hmmm… Somewhere safe… The library? It doesn't have speakers: and it's pretty big. Not the conference hall: it's equipped with mikes and speakers." Hikawa suggested.

"Fine. How is it going like, guys?" Netto asked the Navis.

"I managed to unlock Class 3 – B." Glyde reported.

"Class 3 – A is unlocked." Roll reported next.

"Mugro~h! I unlocked 2 – B!"

"Alright. The 2 – A classroom is unlocked too." Scherezade reported.

"I busted the 1 – B classroom lock!" Sigma added.

"The last one, Class 1 – A, is busted too." Blood Shadow added.

"Good. Let's re-organize. Arushi, Tooru – kun, Meiru – chan, Yaito – chan, Karazawa – san, Eboshi – kun… Lead the sheltering. We two will go check the PA center and the main server. Nelaus: handle Twilight."

"Delighted."

"How?" Karazawa asked.

"You'll see." He shrugged.

The group ran off so Netto and Saito headed into a bathroom close by and entered a stall: Saito sat on a toilet with the cover lowered and closed his eyes: some seconds later Rock Man showed up on Netto's PET: he picked Saito's and ran off.

"Bad news." Blood Shadow grumbled.

"Sheesh." Sigma grumbled.

"The Obscure Legion?" Netto guessed.

"Gate Cannon!"

"Swallow Cutter!"

"Mugro~h! The cloud rascal AGAIN!"

"Hi there~… I'm dooming than doomed."

"HUH?"

"Heh, heh, heh. This is the battlefield, you lot!"

"Kneel before Neo Gospel's power!"

"Lovely." Rock Man grumbled next.

"So… All of the competent Navis save for you and Isaac are busy handling the Obscure Legion… And I guess that…"

"Metto~!"

"I knew it: Legion 64 came as well."

"That leaves us to find the server and disable it: I'm sure the wave is being controlled from there and only the main server could authorize setting those firewalls without triggering security alarms."

"Maybe Bapgei's waiting for me at the server room. Fine. I'm gonna show the guy how hard I can punch."

"Don't fall for the guy's taunts."

"I know."

"Bad news too. The guy in the yard ain't ex – _senpai_."

"Who is it, then? Bapgei?"

"Nope! Me!"

"Anaya in person? That's a first." He wasn't too surprised.

"Yeah. Synchro Chip, Slot In! CROSS FUSION!"

"Come, Raiden! I'm going to make you regret your betrayal!"

"That of the summer wasn't enough, huh? Had the hunch."

"Hmpf. Maybe Liquid trained you too well."

"Why bother to…? Ah!"

"What the heck! So that of the book was true?" Karazawa's voice asked from close by.

"I told you to shelter and assist Scherezade, didn't I?"

"But, then…?"

"Look: do you wanna end up brainwashed or not?"

"T-that's…"

"Then go help Scherezade!" He insisted.

"Fine! But I'll want explanations!"

"I don't need to. You're a civilian and you don't have the security clearance to access that info." He dully replied.

"W-wha~t? This is turning into a cop movie!"

"Tee, heh, heh. Lil girl… It's better for ya not to poke the nose where ya aren't called at or else ya end up in trouble… You're still half-baked to begin with, anyway."

"Half-baked! Says the gal! You're three quarters baked at the best to begin with!" Karazawa got annoyed.

"Get – inside!" Aura hissed and apparently dragged her back in.

"Lil girls… Too hot, too hot."

"Oh yeah? What about your summer accomplices, huh?"

"Oh, those chicks? Passionate, passionate. Tee, heh, heh."

"Alright. I'm finally here." Netto had reached the main server room in the meanwhile.

"I detect unusually high traffic… No doubt: the PA center must be a decoy and the source is here. Let's go, Netto – kun!"

"Alright! Plug In! Rock Man EXE, Transmission!"

10:28 AM (Japan Time)…

"… This armor Liquid built for me will do wonders."

"Hmpf."

"And I've got a Diamond Blade too. Not even that precious Monolith can stand it!"

"The novel says they tried to cut it with diamond cutters and they failed at it: how about that?"

"Che."

Cross Fusion Nelaus was facing Anaya in the school yard.

"CF" Nelaus eyes' remained the same and some blonde hair popped out behind the helmet.

The helmet kept the blue coloring yet it had gained three square dots on the ear-pads and on the middle of the forehead which were colored golden, crystal and silver from left to right: a black matrix filled the rest of the helmet's surface.

The emblem remained unchanged and so did the armor protecting the base of his neck: yet, on the space below the emblem and before the waist belt (unchanged) the alphabet letters "N" and "S" colored in a platinum color had been drawn: the "N" was on the left and the "S" to the right of the vertical line splitting the body in two.

The shoulder design hadn't changed and the arms' patterns remained the same yet his forearms armor was different: the armor over the wrist was transparent purple in color and the Alphabet "N" letter colored green was set over it: the space over the palm had a black circle which contained a small red dot in the middle surrounded by different scales of red from dull red to crimson red.

The fingers had transparent red rings set on each one which glowed with a dull red glow.

His waist belt was the same: the legs and knee guards hadn't changed.

His boots had slightly changed because they now had red and black matrixes across their whole surface and they included those "eyes" like in the space over the hands and set on both sides of each boot.

"Tee, heh, heh."

Anaya wore what seemed to be body armor based off that of Twilight: it was all colored purple and covered her whole body including the neck: she wielded the same Diamond Blade "CF" Nelaus had and looked smug and arrogant.

"And where is your spokesman? At La-La-La Land?"

"Nope. Up there."

"Up where…? Ah!"

"CF" Nelaus glanced over his right shoulder and spotted Izono Marco (a man on his late 20s with short blackish hair and dull brown eye irises) wearing blackish armor and a sniper rifle which he was steadily aiming for Nelaus' neck from behind.

"Damn. He's got my back." "CF" Nelaus grumbled.

"Area Steal is disabled too. All warp abilities are jammed by the damned wave that… That… Damn it!"

"What's wrong?"

"The wave! It's a wave! Not mere sound!"

"So?"

"It's like wireless! It's spreading all across the school, not only where there are speakers! The DCs act as repeaters and amplifiers!" Isaac explained to him.

"What! So there's no safe spot?"

"No…! We got tricked there!" Isaac cursed.

"Shit. Unless we find a way to stop this in 5 minutes or less then everyone us included can end up brainwashed!"

"Yet… Say. What type of wave are we talking about?"

"Radio wave… Pretty wide radius…"

"But weaker than Wi-Fi, no?"

"I see! We need a room with concrete walls: that should reduce the efficacy of the wave… I'll try calling one of the PETs… Arushi: can you hear me? Ask the veterans if there's a room with thick concrete walls in the school!" He whispered.

"What are you waiting for? Come!" Anaya was growing impatient.

"Fine. Keep at it, Isaac. I can continue on my own… Program Advance: Giga Cannon!"

"What? Huh! Reflect!"

"CF" Nelaus shot the Giga Cannon at Anaya and she used a Metool's shield to reflect it back but "CF" Nelaus dodged and the blast hit the wall over the entrance, opening a hole there and making some small debris fall over the spot: "CF" Nelaus formed a Boomerang and shot it towards Anaya, who easily sliced it in half: yet that was a distraction and "CF" Nelaus flung a Cannon Ball at her, momentarily stunning her and allowing him to rush closer and deliver a punch to her jaw from beneath that forced her to recoil yet he delivered a kick to her waist next: he suddenly felt a bullet hitting his Cross Fusion body from behind at the right shoulder but it couldn't penetrate the thick bodysuit: he wasn't intimidated and tried to deliver a punch to Anaya's face but she ducked and delivered a kick to his in-between but the bodysuit protected him from harm: he flipped backwards and Anaya fumed.

"Shit. That looked bad. And it's in live to top it off. Bah. I'll handle it better from now on. Get ready, traitor!" She muttered before calling out aloud and loading up energy on the blade.

"They've taken a good shelter." Isaac whispered.

"Good. Then we can go all out. Let's go!"

"Hya~h!"

10:37 AM (Japan Time)…

"… So you were here."

"Heh! Been a while since I focused my attention to you personally: insofar my pawns had always dealt with you… Only to screw it up."

"Hmpf. Guess that."

"All insofar has proceeded as planned. Well then. Let's begin your defeat in live and the rise of Neo Gospel's genuine terror and fear."

"Gloat while you can. I already studied the data of yesterday and I've practiced."

"That was within my calculations. I knew I had to show up in _kyoudai_'s place either yesterday or earlier today to show those off. But who said that was all I had in store?"

"Shit. Why didn't we think of this?"

"Hah, hah, hah. The trap was that you would focus on how "dire" it was and think in nothing else. Instincts are so readable. Like human muscles as well. Vamp was an expert at that."

Rock Man found Twilight inside of the main server and giving him the back: today he seemed to be cool and cocky and both Netto and Rock Man grumbled when they realized they'd been had.

"_Annihilate the evil spirits that antagonize the world… Even if my hands are stained with sins… Send the sinful souls to God's presence… _Lust Doppler!"

"What?"

Twilight glowed and formed three ghostly pinkish _bunshin_ of himself that took positions above him and to his sides: they shot forward followed by Twilight: Rock Man tried to dodge them but they all corrected their paths and hit him in a row with Twilight delivering the final tackle: Rock Man groaned and managed to stand up again.

"Heh, heh, heh."

"Shit. What's next?"

"_Death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death… Death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death… Death, death, death, death, death, death, death, death…_ Re –su – rre – c – tiO – N!" Twilight began to chant in a row to then oddly misspell "resurrection" as if he wasn't sure how it sounded or it was an attempt at pronouncing it.

"HUH?"

Two columns of light formed and both Bomber Man and Stone Man (looking lifeless) formed in front and behind Twilight: both rushed for Rock Man and he cursed.

"Soul Unison: Omega Soul!"

Several streams of crimson light jumped off from his chest emblem before crimson energy encompassed his body and seemed to form a new layer over its frame: a dome of transpired reddish energy formed around Rock Man as he stood up and began to blind the opponents who had to shield their sight (even Twilight).

"Hmpf…"

"Soul Unison: Omega Soul" Rock Man had gained a wholly new layer of armor over his body.

His helmet got Omega's helmet overlapped with his but the ear-pads remained unchanged: the inverted pyramidal jewel on the forehead was replaced by an eight-spoke emerald and a golden line with silver edges spanned across the length of the helmet from behind the jewel to the lower rear edge of the helmet.

His shoulder-plates became vermillion and gained white circuitry patterns over them: his arms' skin became black and his forearms' armor got a new crimson layer with a golden bracelet close to the wrist: the fingers were colored black by now.

The chest got Omega's vest over it and it included the "Omega" symbol colored in white color on both sides of it.

A hole had been cut on the center to expose his chest emblem.

His waist got that curious "V" piece of armor on it which formed that cavity in the front and the rear of it.

The legs became black and unadorned and the boots also got that crimson armor with a golden bracelet slightly beneath the start of them: the soils got thicker and were colored in metallic black color.

A large flock of blonde hair formed behind the helmet and reached all the way to the floor.

He lastly got the O – Saber on his right hand colored in a bright emerald color plus the holster for it over his right hip.

"Hra~h!"

One slice was enough to split Bomber Man from the SW to the NE and cut his Ultimate Program too thus deleting him: Stone Man tried to tackle Rock Man but he quickly drew the plasma gun and shot at the head, melting it and exposing the insides of the body: another round deleted the Ultimate Program and Stone Man was gone too: that surely hadn't even lasted 10 seconds.

"This is between you and me. Enough proxy war." Rock Man icily told Twilight.

"Hmpf. So you've seen MGS4." Twilight chuckled.

"And what if. Don't call me _otaku_: your precious Boss began it all over 10 years ago by playing the game." Rock Man warned.

"Hmpf. Fine. I've got more in store… _Heaven is will, the Emperor's God-mind… Hunt the opposing fellow…_ Psycho Fusion!"

Spheres of purple energy having the emblem of the Darkloids drawn on them formed and fused to give way to a bigger purple sphere that produced a cross-shaped attack: they began to pop out around Rock Man and one appeared to his right and one of its arms hit him: he grimaced and repressed the exhale of pain he was about to make: he dashed forward and shot at Twilight but he bounced it back with the sword.

"I've also got knowledge in plasma."

"Shit."

"Heh, heh, heh… How about THIS? _Godly Emperor that rules the Heavens… Heavenly Star Summoned from Beyond the Galaxy… This is Divine Punishment… Be destroyed, you fool… _The One Come from Beyond the Rumbling Space!" He exclaimed.

"Whoa!"

A gigantic mass of plasma, a miniature star, began to fall from the "sky" towards Rock Man while forming a layer of plasma around it: Rock Man cursed and tried to think of a way to deal with it: he suddenly jumped towards it and did something using his boots' soils to be repelled by the mass and shot towards Twilight, who didn't see that one coming: he swung the sword and managed to make a superficial wound on the upper edge of it mid-way across the height of both shoulders: the star suddenly hit the ground and despite its slow speed it caused a massive explosion that made the whole of the ground around them crack and collapse into an apparently endless shaft: the platform that remained with both of them on it began to fall down it as well.

"Grah! I didn't see that coming and that triggered the next phase but it doesn't matter." He grumbled.

"Shit. We're only inches away from each other."

"And you'll have a harder time dodging THIS! _The rolling thunderbolt is the guidance of beliefs… The roaring thunder boom is the proof of fate… The tearing thunder and lightning are the foundations of the Universe… _Voltic Chain!"

Some gigantic chains suddenly began to pop out of nowhere and cross across the area in several directions forming a mess: Twilight put on a Dream Aura while the chains glowed with azure electricity: Rock Man got hit by it and he repressed the pain that threatened to come out again as the chains dispersed.

"Huff, huff… Too strong…!"

"Don't despair, Rock Man!"

"I'm trying, Netto – kun…! Were it so easy…!"

"Heh, heh, heh. More…!"

"Shit… It never ends…!" He panted.

"Recovery 300!"

"Thank you, Netto – kun… But it doesn't heal away the despair, unfortunately enough."

"Shit. This is bad. The others have their hands full surviving and any other Navi can't hope to survive against that guy."

"That's why the rascal closed us inside of the school…!"

"Heh, heh, heh. _Lightning that vibrates and rinses like the heavens… Smash all that you meet across your path. _Lightning Sphere!"

Twilight extended his right hand forward and built up some electricity there: four bluish/white spheres of electricity formed around him and quickly spun clockwise, hitting Rock Man despite his attempt to block it with his blade: he began to pant again.

"Last Special Skill… This is the end!"

"D-damn it…"

"_The sparkling thunder-wrapped holy blade… Azure lightning's outrage: pierce the enemy… _Spark Calibur!"

A gigantic white mass of energy shaped like a blade formed and stabbed Rock Man's front on its whole height: he groaned and collapsed face-down on the ground: Netto gasped and tried using a Recovery 300 but although it worked Rock Man didn't rise.

"Let's give it up, Netto – kun… We can't win…"

"No! Don't give it up, Rock Man! Damn it! We've come this far!"

"Too strong… Too strong… If you want to survive then…"

"Do not say weakling things, Rock Man. I expected more of you to begin with: do not disappoint my expectations."

"What, the newcomer lil girl managed to sneak in?" Twilight didn't even bother to turn and he was sneering.

"Wrong."

Two yellowish blades suddenly pierced through Twilight's upper torso from behind and he gasped: Rock Man looked up and gasped in surprise as well: the blades got pulled out and Twilight moved erratically as if the attack had stunned him: he suddenly lost balance and silently fell down the endless shaft the end of which became visible and which was plain ground to begin with: the platform landed there while Twilight groaned and sluggishly tried to detach from the ground to get on his fours: he quickly stood up although he lacked balance and his moves were erratic: he looked afraid, even.

"No way… None of the Navis here have that much power…! I'd accounted for each of them…! Day after day of gathering data…! Countless simulations…! All was going perfectly…! According to the plan…! What's gone wrong…?"

"You underestimated me, you fool. And, by extent, my Masters."

"D-damn it… My head's spinning… I can't recognize that voice and it sounds like it comes from far, far away…! But this feeling…! It makes me remember something…! Years ago…! Huh…? WHA?"

He seemed to finally come to his senses and saw an ominous shadow with crimson flashes there and there and holding a golden blade: their eyes glowed with a mix of brown and emerald: Twilight recoiled, taken aback by the apparition.

"Of course. It was as simple as this. How stupid of me." The shadow whispered.

"What the fuck is going on…? Damn it! The dizziness won't leave!"

"Get ready… This is for all those who suffered at your hands!"

The "shadow" dashed forward and quickly delivered some blows to Twilight while cutting through the armor or destroying it altogether: they suddenly abandoned the weapon and let out a cry of rage that sounded like it'd been held back for a long, long time: an array of punches and kicks followed and Twilight couldn't defend or block or react: each blow made him groan from the pain and further dizzied him: he barely felt a kick to his jaw that sent him flying and crashing against a wall to then slide down along its length and to the ground where he ended up seating: the "shadow" loomed over him again and now it was surrounded by a cyan glow.

"W-what the heck? The Cyber Diva?" He uttered without thinking and seemingly out of idea association.

"Wrong… The punishing light that's come to condemn you… Who has created this? You. You've created this. You've created this, this that has led you to failure. I was blind. But now I see… Very clearly."

"Damn it. That sounds like Vader when he began to get tempted by the Dark Side…! Wait a min… Then that's…!"

"The same one you were overwhelmingly beating to an inch of their lives a moment ago… Or "ones"? Doesn't matter now…"

The shadow turned out to be Rock Man, still with the Omega Soul armor yet something about him felt out of place: Twilight looked like he was feeling further horror with every passing second.

"Where the hell did so much strength come from?"

"I said it: you've created it. It's been building in me for years. And now it's awakened. I removed the walls keeping it at bay. But this isn't for revenge: this is… JUSTICE!" Rock Man icily exclaimed.

"Let us say I lent him a hand."

Xon' Edos suddenly landed behind Rock Man while looking calm and unimpressed: he had those two golden blades set over his hands and which were aiming downwards: Twilight frowned and then gasped as all color left his face on that instant.

"YOU! The alien…! DAMN IT ALL! I FORGOT ABOUT YOU! I DIDN'T TAKE YOU INTO ACCOUNT! RAMA, NET SAVIORS, KYOUDAI, ALL THOSE ORGS AND ALL…! AND I FORGOT ABOUT YOU!" He roared as he quickly got to his feet, panting: his face contracted into pure hatred.

"Your problem. Not mine." He icily replied.

"IT WAS PERFECT! PERFECT! AND I FORGOT TO TAKE YOU INTO ACCOUNT INTO MY CALCULATIONS!" He roared again.

There was some noise and the walls around them vanished to reveal they were in the main hall of the school's Cyber World, filled with remains of a battle: Search Man, Blues, Prism Man, Omega, Annihilator Man, Axe Man and Destruction Man had come there and were assisting the other Navis who looked like they'd been in a very hard battle given the level of wounds they all had and the large level of destruction: Isaac was also being tended but he looked more tired than wounded.

"Twilight! What are ya waitin' for? Get outta there!" Anaya commanded through the radio.

"Y-yes, Boss…! I'll be back…! My…!"

"MOVE YOUR DAMNED FATTY ASS!" Anaya ran out of patience.

Twilight gulped and quickly jumped into the Remote Gate that formed behind him and disappeared: Rock Man sighed in relief and brought the left hand to his forehead.

"By the way, Xon' Edos… I still feel confused. What did you do?"

"Well. When we first met, a year ago, I did scan your body. Yesterday, when Omega told me about Twilight getting stronger, I began to search the data I had trying to see if there was a method that could turn the tables if you were in a grim situation… And I found what you used on the summer in your duel with Annihilator Man over there… What you dubbed the "Saito Style", years ago… I activated that dormant power yet it would seem that, along the way, built up negatives emotions got released and they made up an explosive… mixture. I had hoped to momentarily distract Twilight with my attack but what happened next… was your own will."

"Whoa." Both he and Netto were impressed.

"You OK, Junior?" Nelaus asked close by.

"What about you?"

"More tired than wounded… Ex-Boss could bite. And bit me like a rabid dog, even. Izono wasn't that much of a deal. The idiot forgot to bring the proper ammunition and all shots were blocked."

"Yeah. They fled using a DC… We tried taunting the villain to see if she would slip something but that wasn't the case." Isaac added.

"I feel SO tired, too…!"

"Don't worry. Classes have been cancelled. The students are safe, thankfully enough, save by those already brainwashed. The shutdown of the wave stopped it but it takes a while to heal. They're going to be brought to the hospital and kept under observation. Ijuuin called and said he and Laika would handle the press and all."

"Fua~h… I need to get home and… rest!" Netto groaned.

"Same for us…"

"Tell me already, Rainon! What's the deal?"

"It's classified. That's all you can know. Need Not To Know. And it's serious stuff." He icily replied in a tone that admitted no replies.

"Yikes." Karazawa gulped.

"Sometimes, knowing too much can cost you your life. Some movies don't tend to be that far off reality." Annihilator Man muttered.

"And in some times, too much knowledge leads to arrogance, and arrogance leads to… annihilation." Xon' Edos grimly muttered apparently to himself but Rock Man heard it.

"You mean WWII?" He tried asking.

"Ah! Well… When you bring it up, then… More or less. I was thinking of something else, though…"

"… "Duo"…?" He asked in a whisper.

"Indeed."

"You're making sure he's far, far away from here, right?"

"Absolutely. My predictions place at him at 23.456 light-years from Earth at by now." He whispered back.

"Ah! Alright. Then we've got nothing to worry about."

"Indeed. Duo's comet cannot use "hyper-space". And at max speed only achieves about one fifth of the speed of light. That means it takes 5 years to travel 1 light year. That makes about 1,172,280 years of travel to get here…" Xon' Edos continued while making sure no-one overheard.

"Whoa. Alright, alright. Just wanted to be sure of it… I didn't doubt that Vadous – san plunged him as deep as he could yet… I thought that there could be a calculation error or something…"

"We shall talk of this on another day. You are tired, Rock Man. You need to rest. A tired warrior cannot properly function."

"Good point. Let's go, Netto – kun… Fua~h…"

"OK…"

Rock Man exited the Cyber World while Xon' Edos sighed: he then directed a slightly annoyed glare at Omega.

"Sorry for overhearing. But we've got some responsibility regarding "Duo" since we were the one who plunged the guy deeper into the Milky Way over 4 years ago." Omega calmly told him.

"We are all on the edge. Let us rest. That surge out Rock Man experimented should have removed a heavy burden yet part of it will invariably remain. And we need to stay on guard."

"Yeah. At least this has been a warning. That Neo Gospel is not to be taken lightly… A bitter victory, maybe? I don't know. Time will tell."

"Time will tell… This is not over yet… Far from it, indeed… The fools…"


	11. Chapter 11: Wet works

**Chapter 11: Wet works**

18:11 PM (Melbourne Time), Saturday November the 24th…

"… Master is still sleeping? Freeze Man."

"Chut. Yes. Like a rock. He seems to have shut down all of his sensory inputs or, if you prefer, his senses. He just sleeps. I don't know what exactly happened there but even Lady IQ seemed to have trouble calming him down and that's a first."

"What the heck could've happened?"

"You still can't figure it out, you storm?"

"Wha~t?"

"Be quiet, fools!"

"Quiet!"

"Y-yes, sir…!"

Philip had been sitting in the sofa of the Melbourne house: Freeze Man came in while sighing and apparently come from the second floor: the other Darkloids were quiet save for Cloud Man who looked nervous: Swallow Man grumbled at his lack of imagination and Yamato Man scolded them: Freeze Man ordered them to be quiet.

"All was accounted for and all was going perfectly and yet… We had to forget about the alien!" Swallow Man told him.

"Ah!" He gasped.

"I find it odd that the whole of us forgot about the man." Cosmo Man sounded mistrusting.

"I should've been the one to remember. We did have a clash not too long ago." Freeze Man sighed.

"I thought Navis couldn't forget?" Philip frowned.

"Yes. Like a computer's hard drive… A computer never forgets."

"And how do you explain that?"

"Hmm… Maybe we got some program from that man that shifted our files from one place to another… To put it simpler… It's like you had a photo you always access in the desktop but someone moved it somewhere you'd never bother to check out like, say, the Program Files folder. Since it isn't there you can't see it and thus you cannot remember it." Freeze Man explained to him.

"I get the idea. So you mean he made you purposely forget."

"Yes. And it must be a program designed to spread to other Navis as well, Lord Twilight included. Hence why we all forgot."

"Why would an alien have that, anyway?" Yamato Man grumbled.

"Maybe it's in the case that they were seen by someone and to prevent the spread of news, they make that Navi forget what they saw… Instead of bothering to delete them they simply make them forget and thus they avoid being reported…" Freeze Man theorized.

"I see." Cosmo Man rubbed his chin.

"But, leaving those asides… What do we do?"

"Hum. Good point."

"I don't know either." Anaya (sans the armor and wearing a simple sleeveless white shirt, jeans and sandals) came into the living room.

"Ah! Lady IQ!" Everyone saluted.

"Skip the protocols and crap. Let's get to the point." She didn't look in a good mood today either.

She sat on the sofa and fumed while she crossed her arms.

"We need to remind them terror isn't going to take breaks." She told the group.

"Maybe I could hit the Science Labs and cause some chaos? Trapping them inside of it…"

"Trapping inside would feel like a repeat of yesterday. Just go and pick a fight with someone there. That's all." She ordered.

"Roger."

"Not so fast. We've got to discuss alternatives."

"Alright."

"My lady, the tea…" Izono (wearing a sleeveless white shirt, brown shorts, and sandals) came in having a tray.

"Good. Leave it here."

"Yes, my lady."

Izono quietly left the teapot and the cup on the table and then left back for the kitchen.

"Luckily today was a break day at the place we're working at undercover so there'll be no suspicion." Anaya sighed as she served the tea into the teacup.

"Hum. Maybe we need to rip something?" Freeze Man suggested.

"I'd thought of using some cards from a series named _Card Captor Sakura_ but I don't feel like it. It'd look childish. Discarded. And don't come up with Duel Monsters next. No. Your hit of the Science Labs should suffice but beware of that Resal bulky rascal." She told him.

"True, true! That damned Laser Man has one hell of a weapon that almost blew me up into pieces, sir!" Cosmo Man told Freeze Man.

"Hum. Then it's not wise to battle them sans a plan. Maybe I should pick Zero: I've got experience with the fool… And a personal score to settle with them, too…" He muttered.

"I can draw Resal away with a ruckus somewhere and stall for time jumping all over the place." Swallow Man offered.

"Using my Remote Gate, right?" Zoan Gate Man guessed

"Yeah. Correct."

"Good. That could do yet… Send some of Legion 64 to scout: we don't wanna stumble upon the alien there."

"Roger! 44, 45, 46 and 47!"

"Metto~!"

"Scout the Science Labs! Sit down close by and listen!"

"Metto~!"

"Wait a few minutes until we get an idea of who's there and who isn't there… I've got another idea… Bapgei! You're going to sneak in and take that kid working for that Meijin guy hostage. Maybe if we "pressure" him he'll tell us useful info."

"Roger. I'll go get my "Talon" clothes."

Philip rushed out of the living room while Anaya looked like she was getting in a better mood: the Darkloids seemed relieved to see that and Anaya cleared her throat.

"By the way… Speaking of disguises… Wasn't there some specialist that Twilight hired a long time ago?"

"Vincent "Red", my lady!" Cloud Man quickly replied.

"Ah yeah. You went to the guy's place often, no?"

"Yes, my lady!"

"Can we rely on the guy?"

"If we could make the guy stop drinking so much _tequila_ then…"

"Is there something that can boost the guy?"

"I know, my lady! If I say that thou are related to General Campestre then the guy will think it's for the sake of the _revolución_ and will do anything that's told! Anything! Sans complain!" He seemed to grin.

"Good. Slap the guy if needed but we need the disguise skills to help Bapgei disguise every time he goes out."

"Roger, my lady! I shall be going right now!"

"Wait a min. It's 17 hours earlier in Mexico. It must be about 2AM there and I don't think Vincent will be in a condition to work at this hour. Let's wait some hours, at least until 7AM." Swallow Man warned.

"Huh! Good point. I forgot about the time difference."

"Can't be helped. But make sure to go ASAP!"

"Yes, my lady!"

"I'm ready, my lady."

"Good, Bapgei!"

Philip came back while donning a suit.

The suit consisted on black leather clothes which covered his whole body including a hood with goggles: it design was reminiscent of an owl's face, even.

He carried a belt spanning from the right shoulder to the left flank of his body and which had sheaths for 6 knives: it included a medallion with the drawing of an owl close to the shoulder.

Other equipment included gauntlets: the right one had metallic armor shaped like an owl's face and the left one had some sheaths for smaller knives.

The guy carried leather boots as well and two knife sheaths attached to the belt's waist.

His gear included two short swords' sheaths attached to his back.

"I've got a better idea now. Freeze Man, strike, claim you're looking for Zero and focus on drawing the guy away. Legion 64 will use the noise to cause a blackout and in the meanwhile Bapgei will get that kid researcher and bring him to Kataka's place: let's soften the guy a bit and then we might be able to make him confess. Better yet! Let's prepare a Navi double to take his place for a while: this way they won't realize it. Let's move out, you lot! Nyah, hah, hah! Neo Gospel strikes back!"

17:33 PM (Japan Time)…

_Alright, I'm inside… Piece of a cake… They didn't expect me to come in through the air ducts… Heh, heh, heh…_

"Warning! Intruder in the Cyber World! They've breached the Level 1 firewall! It's Freeze Man!"

"Freeze Man, damn it all!"

_Good. As expected: Freeze Man's begun the distraction._

"Zero! Come out! The time has come to see which one of us is the ultimate Wily creation!"

"You want a piece of me? Here I am!"

"Hmpf! However... This place is too noisy… I prefer quiet spots… Catch me if you can! Defective! Mwah, hah, hah."

"Sheesh. Wait!"

"Who will wait when you tell them to?"

Bapgei (with his outfit) was crawling across an air duct in the Science Labs and he heard the scandal formed by Freeze Man's intrusion: he heard Zero's voice next and it was obvious that Zero had bitten the bait: Bapgei chuckled under his breath and continued crawling.

"What happened?" Laser Man asked.

"Freeze Man! Zero is chasing the guy!"

"Damn it. They've come for more, huh?"

_Guess they're frustrated that we've come back so soon. Heh! Lady IQ is too smart for you lot._

"Apart from that: anything unusual? Out of place?" Dr. Regal asked close by to, apparently, Meijin.

"No."

"Are you sure of it? What about Legion 64?"

"Nothing else has come in and out." Meijin insisted.

"This is Anaya. Continue as you were: Regal is mistrusting the looks of things but since Legion 64 is only sitting outside then they don't have a reason to suspect anything. Marco in person will handle the blackout as well in 1 minute. Ready the IR goggles, Bapgei." Anaya whispered over his suit's radio.

"Roger, my lady. Only 15 meters to the goal."

"Cosmo Man! Is the dummy ready?"

"Yes, my lady! Ready to deploy at any moment. My lady."

"Good. Wait for my signal."

"Yes, my lady!"

"I've carried out an inspection, Dr. Regal – sama. There aren't any hostile programs within the 3 main sectors."

"Good. Then that means that Freeze Man only came to draw Zero out and it's believable: they've had clashes before." Meijin seemed satisfied with the conclusion.

"Heh! They've fallen for it: totally."

"Is Obihiro – kun on his office?"

"He's resting: he overworked again trying to find strategies to the tactics Twilight used yesterday. I told him that could be done by the Subspace but once again he felt like he had to do it." Meijin sighed.

"Good. The kid's napping so there's no danger of making any ruckus when you capture him. How many meters left?"

"7."

"Good. Marco: on position?"

"Yes, my lady. All is ready."

"Cosmo Man: get ready!"

"Yes, my lady. I am ready."

"Good. As soon as Bapgei reaches the room, you will start the blackout. You, Bapgei, know what to do. Use the stun gun and then pick the kiddo to then go to the basement floor from the close by stairs. Once in there we can warp without being detected. Cosmo Man will step in and place the dummy." Anaya whispered further instructions.

"Roger. 3 meters."

"Hum. Let's be careful." Cosmo Man whispered.

"Yeah. We can't rush it or we may screw it up."

"1.5 meters… I see the cover."

"Good, good."

"I guess that it's about half a meter by now…"

"Silence…!" Anaya hushed.

Silence ensued: Bapgei reached the end of the air duct and looked inside the room through the cover: Obihiro was indeed resting in a bed placed next to his working desk: Bapgei scanned the room and saw nothing out of place.

"All seems nominal. Cosmo Man. Can you scan the room just in case there's something I can't see?"

"It won't hurt to. Scanning… No cameras, bugs or sensors… Only sensor is the smoke detector… A switch for the lights… A fire alarm button… But that's all." Cosmo Man reported.

"Good. Now, Marco!"

"Roger."

A blackout ensued and Bapgei's glasses began to glow red: he drew a knife-sized diamond blade and neatly cut the edges of the cover so that it would come off: he picked it with the right hand as he slid out of the duct and landed on the room: he quickly placed it back on its spot.

"Glue."

He placed some glue to keep it in place: he headed for Obihiro just as Cosmo Man came in having a Navi about Obihiro's size carried as a package: Bapgei hit Obihiro with the stun gun and he was stunned in a silent manner: he picked him and carried him on his back while Cosmo Man placed the dummy Navi: it glowed and assumed Obihiro's form: both quickly walked out through the door and into a corridor: they picked another door and entered another corridor having the stairs: they rushed to the basement and found a Dimensional Converter waiting for them: it glowed and both were warped out while the DC vanished in a silent manner.

"This is Meijin: I've finally reached the main power control room… As I feared: an electrical overload. I guess it's that DC in the DA test room that has a faulty switch that makes it turn on and off at random and sporadic times…" Meijin could be heard not too far from there.

"At least there's emergency power for the computers and the servers so no harm done…" Dr. Regal replied through the radio.

"Sada: did you disable the faulty DC?"

"Yeah, already disabled."

"Good. I'm restoring the power."

Light came back and the A/C system began to work again: Meijin came out of a door deeper inside and sighed in relief: he hummed a tune and climbed up the stairs to then come out into the main corridor: he found Dr. Regal there.

"I checked the network… Nothing out of place happened."

"Speaking of which… Hey, Zero. How's it going?"

"Not so good over here, Meijin. I'm having trouble with that "Lazy Laser" thing because even my Sonic Booms get nullified." Zero grumbled over the radio.

"Maybe you prefer THIS? Hrah!"

"Shit! The rascal attacked from a blind spot."

"Scope Gun!"

"Huh! Well. If isn't legendary sniper wannabe."

"Shut up. I'm taking you down."

"You will try… Resurrection! Go, Bright Man!"

"_Check it out_! Bright Beam!"

"Shit! I can't see!"

"Cheating as usual, huh?" Meijin grumbled.

"What were you expecting?" Dr. Regal fumed.

"Should I…?" Laser Man offered.

"Yes. Go give those barbarians a lesson."

"Roger, sir."

"Mugen Vulcan!" Search Man suddenly exclaimed.

"Nyagra~h!" Bright Man yelled as he was deleted.

"How frail." Laika taunted.

"You're frail." Freeze Man taunted back.

"Pontiac Cannon!"

"Huh! Ice _Bunshin_!"

The rounds of Laser Man's heavy cannon only managed to shatter a _bunshin _made of ice: Freeze Man grumbled but then chuckled as he seemingly prepared to do something.

"Go, Marumain! "Great Explosion"! Farewell!"

"Shit! Escape!" Zero commanded.

There was the sound of an explosion and it soon died down: the group grumbled under their breaths, annoyed at the enemy tactics…

20:01 PM (Melbourne Time)…

"Hum, hum! Nice body. Cute face. Let's see if he's got a good pitch."

"Don't bother to use the blindfold and the ball-gag. I want him to confess here on the spot, Kataka."

"Yes, Lady IQ. Roger that."

"Good. Save me the _Sengoku_ talk. I want action."

"Roger."

Anaya was sitting in a black leather armchair placed in a stone room somewhere while wearing that armor of the other day: she held a cup with what seemed to be orange juice on it which she was shipping as she talked with a woman present in the room.

This woman, named Kataka, could be around Aura's age but she struck as being slightly taller.

She had long black hair which reached until mid-way along the neck and blue eye irises: she had a smug smile on.

She wore a black leather one-piece suit which started on the breasts and left most of her back exposed.

She had long black leather gloves on her arms plus mail covering the exposed parts of her arms.

She also sported heeled black leather boots with mail over her hips.

She carried a whip on the right hand which was rolled up but she looked like she was about to use it.

"Tee, heh, heh…"

Both glanced at Obihiro, who'd been tied up with ropes over and below his nipples circling his body and keeping his arms immobile: he also had rope on his wrists.

A metallic bar with cuffs had been set cuffed to his ankles forcing his legs to remain spread and open.

A new rope with a hook that passed through a pulley kept him some centimeters lifted from the ground.

He had clothes pegs with a small iron weight attached to each one clipped on his nipples and pulling from them.

The base of his cock had a tight leather belt from which three bands spread and circled around his balls, tightening them: normal clothes pegs were clipped to the sides.

Four bands climbed from a second belt just above the first and led to an ominous black cylinder from which a thin silicon vibrator emerged and plunged into his urethra.

His ass had a string of anal beads inserted on it as well.

"Put it on."

"Roger."

Kataka rummaged into an open box and picked a strap-on which she placed over her waist: she got into position ready to stuff into Obihiro's ass.

"Wake him up."

"Roger!"

She slapped Obihiro's right cheek and that brusquely awakened him: he looked around, confused.

"W-what? Where am I?"

"In the _Naraku_…" Anaya announced.

"The Ice Queen!" He gasped.

"In effect. And one of my disciples, Kataka."

"W-what's this about?" He blushed.

"You've got info that I want. We're going to soften you: and then you will tell me what I want to know." She distractedly sipped some juice.

"May I begin, my lady?"

"Yeah. Hard."

"Get ready, _chibi_!"

"N-no… Stop!"

Kataka violently stuffed the strap-on into Obihiro's ass: he groaned and then felt how the urethra vibrator began to spin inside of him: Anaya looked uninterested.

"It hurts! It all hurts!"

"Surrender to the pain and become slave to it!" Kataka whispered.

"N-no…!" He gasped in fear.

"Keep at it, Kataka. 4 minutes."

"Roger!"

"No…! No more…!"

"What a chicken! We've just begun."

"Let go of me!"

"Thinking better put on the ball-gag." Anaya dully ordered.

"Roger!"

She reached for the box (placed atop a desk) and picked a ball-gag which she quickly adjusted, muffling Obihiro's voice and having him drool: Anaya merely looked on as Kataka began to pull the clothes pegs on his nipples: she drew egg-shaped vibrators connected to a control device and strapped them above and below the clothes pegs while the controllers were strapped with cello-tape into his hips: Obihiro began to convulse more and struggle more.

"It's useless! I'm a pro. No prey escapes from me! Struggle on, feel the pain! You're but a piece of merchandise! To be used! Think of this as an honor, to be used by a pro like me, a disciple of the mighty IQ – sama!"

"Indeed. Another 3 more minutes." Anaya seemed to get into the mood and glanced at her wrist-watch.

"You're here to be fucked! You don't have any rights! Your only purpose is to be used by the clients!"

"Blindfold. That should make the kid despair further."

"Roger!"

Kataka added a black wool blindfold covering his eyes and Obihiro seemed to indeed panic more.

"2 minutes."

"Roger, my lady!"

"Hit the balls with your specialty."

Kataka drew a ping-pong racket and began to smack Obihiro's balls from below: he shivered from the blows and some tears began to slide down his face but Anaya was unmoved.

"Hum. Last minute."

"Now I'm going to get serious! Eat this!"

Kataka gripped Obihiro's waist and began to move faster than before as if to inflict further pain: Obihiro rocked more while Anaya merely watched on while sipping more juice.

"30 seconds."

"Eat smack! These are here to be smacked! You can only feel the pain: pleasure is for the Mistress! Not you piece of merchandise! You might try to erase this memory… But the body will remember this! And it will eventually call out to you…" She whispered.

"Time."

"Heh. There you go!"

"Hum."

Kataka undid the belts and pulled out the urethra vibrator: Obihiro released and she aimed his cock at him to stain his body with his white stuff: he panted and hung his head down: Kataka pulled out and stuffed a 5cm vibrator into his ass.

"I'll torment you with this… Unless you confess."

Obihiro moved the head sideways as if to say he didn't intend to resist anymore: she removed the ball-gag.

"Talk."

"S-security codes…" He coughed.

"How many levels? Shifts? Weaknesses?"

"3 levels…! I only have Level 1…! General research… Level 2 is… Specialized research… Level 3… Classified research…! Meijin – san has Level 3 and is the current Security Head… We shift the codes… Once a week… Each Sunday at 8 PM… Codes are randomly… generated…" He explained between pants.

"Hum. Meijin hands out all codes?"

"Y-yes…"

"So you can't know in advance what the new code will be."

"N-no…!"

"Careful types, huh?" Kataka fumed.

"What's with that mood? That's what I wanted. Or are you hinting that you intended to beyond my orders, Kataka?" She suddenly stood up and narrowed her eyes: her voice became an icy whisper.

"N-n-no! My lady!" She turned rigid and seemed to feel a shiver go down her spine.

"Maybe you want to be on the receiving end too?" She took a step forward and she looked threatening.

"N-no, my lady! I obey!"

"You better do. Or else you'll join my other 5 accomplices in the brig like what happened in the summer…"

"Yikes." She gulped.

"But I want to see more struggling… It's my turn to shine. You go handle someone else. Don't dare to come back inside unless I call out. Nobody else will come in. Nobody." She ordered.

"Y-yes, my lady."

"Take that strap-on: there's a spare in the box anyway. 30 minutes alone: 30 minutes. Starting… NOW."

Kataka ran off immediately and softly closed the door: Anaya headed for it and turned the key on the lock to then carry it with her and toss it inside of the sex toys box.

"Fine. Been a while since I had a chance to shine… I'm going to show you the real terror I bring forth… Engrave it on your flesh…" She dully announced as he unrolled the whip.

"N-no…! Please…! I said… what you demanded…!"

"True. But I feel unsatisfied. I'll have you spit out all of your secrets: your file looked like it'd been heavily censored. Which means that there are some things that someone doesn't want others to know… I'll have you spit them out… Hah!"

She flung the whip and hit Obihiro's stiff cock with it: he groaned but Anaya gave him no break as she landed one hit after the other there: Obihiro's cock began to slowly turn hard and he blushed when he noticed but Anaya didn't slow down and turned faster: she now targeted his balls as well: she turned on the anal dildo with a remote and Obihiro's moans and groans turned louder: that coupled with the egg vibrators soon turned Obihiro's cock totally hard yet Anaya inserted an urethra plug to deny him the release: she tightened the belt on the base of the cock as well and suddenly coiled her whip around it as well to yank it left and right and front: she slowly began to get into a lustful mood while Obihiro could nothing more than groan and moan.

"More, more! This is heating up…!"

She coiled the remainder of the whip around Obihiro's cock and left the handle hanging down from the front: she took out a couple of candles from the box and turned them on with a lighter: she began to drop hot wax around Obihiro's body next before she watched her wristwatch while sneering.

"Hum. 4 minutes. Fine. I'll continue 1 more minute and then give you a chance to confess."

"My lady, do excuse me yet… It's urgent!" Izono knocked at the door all of a sudden.

"Urgent? Oi, oi. They found this place or what?"

"No, my lady."

"Did they figure out the swapping?"

"Please, my lady. Allow me to explain."

"Fine. What is it?"

"Opoulos used an old connection at the FBI… They've begun to set their eyes on Darth Bapgei: they seem to think he'll lead them to Twilight and they can do some backdoor deal to get their hands on new technology for them…" He explained.

"T-the FBI? Oh shit." She gasped.

"That is why I said it was urgent."

"It is urgent! We need to be on our toes. Hopefully by today's night we'll have the counter methods ready."

"Yes. It would seem they have fallen for some misinformation and have set their eyes on Sidney. That gives us some time to maneuver."

"Good, good. They must've fallen for the misconception that Sidney is Australia's capital when it's not. Tell Opoulos to report more details if he can get his hands into them!"

"Understood."

"Where was I at…? Oh yeah."

Anaya calmly walked back to Obihiro and pulled out the urethra plug while unbinding his cock's base: Obihiro groaned and released thus staining his body again: he hung his head down, exhausted.

"So? What did you do? Kill someone?"

"N-no…!"

"There's gotta be a reason your file is so heavily censored."

"… I…" He began to shiver.

"Huh?" She frowned.

"… I can't say it…"

Anaya brought the right hand to her chin as she observed how he began to sob and seemed to shiver in fear.

"… Ah! Ah. I see, I see… Don't tell me. You were abandoned at birth: you're an orphan." She deduced.

"… Yes… The lowest kind of human ever…!" He muttered.

"Huh? Who the hell told you that?"

"… My foster father…"

"So a man named "Obihiro" adopted you. When was that?"

"When I turned 10…"

"And what happened?"

"… It was a living nightmare… I always wished I had the courage to end my life back then… Each day, each day…! I WANTED TO DIE!" He suddenly cried.

"Wha!" She recoiled, taken aback.

"I wanted to die…! I wanted to die…! To die…!"

"What the heck! That man raped you?"

"Not only that…! Starved me…! I barely had strength to do anything…! And I didn't dare tell anyone…! But when I found some old science books… Those were my salvation…! I immersed myself into them…! And decided that one day I would be a scientist…!"

"Hum. I see. Wait a minute… Obihiro… What _kanji_ make it up?"

"_Obi_, belt… And _hiro_, wide…"

"I knew it! Obihiro! I'd forgotten! What a bizarre coincidence!"

"W-what?"

"That man was Marco's Godfather! And he raped Marco when he turned 10 one day. He then vanished from the radar when his parents reported to the police… And since there are many "Obihiro" then they couldn't figure out which of them was the perpetrator… And the case got archived despite his parents' protests… That useless Arkansas police… Hence why we moved to Chicago." Anaya recalled.

"W-what…!"

"And he decided he wanted someone to rape again and again so he picked you from the orphanage to do so!"

"I knew it…! I'm the unluckiest human in history…!"

"Devil. That's one hell of a depression you've got there."

"OF COURSE I'VE GOT ONE! BEING RAPED AND STARVED FOR 3 YEARS: HOW DID YOU WANT ME NOT TO GET SEQUELS?" He roared with anger that seemed to have been held back for some time.

"Your file says you're 14. So that ended 2 years ago. How?"

"That man… he was beginning of grow tired of me and tried to go get another orphan before killing me…! But it'd seem that, according to the police, he was questioned about what had become of me since there was no register I'd joined any school… The conditions for adopting an orphan state that the parents must guarantee that they go to a school…"

"I see. I guess he tried to loophole it but failed at it, they called the cops, and they investigated the house and found you."

"Y-yes… I was finally free… So a nurse of the hospital decided to take care of me, a very kind person… And I studied a lot, I proved to have a very high IQ and I began to discover new concepts that didn't exist… By the summer, I got the eye of the Science Labs and they hired me…"

"How curious, how curious… To think that your foster father was the Godfather of Marco out there… You've gotten my interest…"

"And mine!"

"Who? Vadous!"

Vadous suddenly appeared in the room: Anaya had been so focused on interrogating Obihiro that she hadn't heard how the door's lock had been forced open and he'd stepped in.

"H-how did you figure out this place?" She gasped.

"Hmpf. Tamashita told us about Kataka and when we investigated her we found her name in this club's servers." He grumbled.

"Damn it all." She cursed.

"Twilight won't come to save you this time around."

"Hah! You damned traitor dog! You forget who I am. Do you think I've come this far by influence alone?"

"What's your damned point?" Vadous had already drawn his blades.

"That I can fight!"

She suddenly rushed over to Vadous, gripped his right wrist with both hands and brusquely folded it: Vadous yelped and let go of the right sword so Anaya quickly picked it and stabbed it on the armor over the stomach area yet it didn't get to penetrate it.

"Like I'd build blades that can actually harm me!"

"Hmpf! Grievous' wisdom infected cha, huh?" She mocked.

"MTHABG!" He growled something undecipherable.

"I've got something more in store! THIS!"

She suddenly drew the stun gun and hit the right side of the neck with it: Vadous growled as he felt the discharge and recoiled, momentarily stunned by the attack: Anaya ran off only to meet face-to-face with Omega who was aiming the gun at him.

"You won't pass."

"Gandalf next, eh?"

"Grrr…" He began to get annoyed.

"Tear this rascal to pieces, Freeze Man!" She looked beyond him.

"What!"

He turned around but Anaya quickly drew her diamond blade knife and stabbed it into Omega's back: he growled as it pierced through his skin and damaged something: he seemed to get stuck in that position and couldn't move.

"Damn it! My main spine controller!" He growled.

"Hmpf! Blame your precious Sith for showing me the full schematics years ago!"

She ran off and met up with Izono who'd come out of hiding behind a column in a room somewhere: Kataka was also there.

"Those 2 destroyed the backdoor and rushed down here: they seemed to go straight for you, my lady, so…"

"Whatever! Let's get out and call Cosmo Man and the others to get us outta here!"

"R-roger!"

They ran upstairs and ended up in a narrow backstreet somewhere: they rushed some meters away as Anaya drew a PET and inputted some commands into it.

"Cosmo Man! Get us outta here!"

"R-roger!"

A "DC" popped out next to them and warped them away just when Vadous was about to catch up with them: they vanished and he growled yet he didn't stop.

"Whatever! I know where they're headed at. I'm going to break in and blow them up." He growled.

"Boss! But there'll be the whole of the Obscure Legion there!" Kir Osh argued over the radio.

"I don't give a crap for those. I'll just blow them up."

He rushed down the streets taking profit of the little traffic out there and soon reached the district where Twilight's house was at: he headed for the house at top speed without bothering to hide: Freeze Man suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Ice Stage~!"

He formed a ring of ice 5 meters wide per 5 tall and it lifted off the ground and into the air at 2 meters atop the ground: Freeze Man drew his blade but Vadous merely formed a black flame just below his left hand and let it drop into the ice: it quickly deleted and both fell yet Vadous ignited some jets on his boots' soils to slow down his descent: he landed on the balcony while Freeze Man maneuvered in mid-air, apparently disconcerted and without an idea of what to do: the Remote Gate formed beneath him and he was taken in just as Vadous tackled the balcony doors and entered the house's 2nd floor: Philip (still on his disguise) rushed out of a nearby room with 10 knives in total in both hands.

"The Court of…!"

"Outta the way, you brat! Got no business with you!"

He suddenly yanked Philip by the neck and violently threw him into the wall over the stairs, to bounce off it and fall into them: he rolled down them but Vadous was heading for another room.

SLAM!

"No more hide 'n seek!"

However, the room was empty and devoid of life yet it looked like it'd been used until recently because the bed's sheets and cover had fallen into the ground and there wasn't much dust.

"Shit. Don't tell me that…"

"I told you, Boss… The moment you began to rush down the streets, they evacuated the place… Our scanners just caught a few DC warp signals that happened 5 minutes ago yet the in-house jammers active until now impeded us from knowing." Kir Osh sighed.

"Fuck. So those 2…"

"They stayed behind to give the impression you'd caught them by surprise… And scans say that the Talon was a program and not the real one too… And Freeze Man was a decoy too hence his slow reaction when falling…" Kir Osh calmly explained.

"FUCK THEM ALL!" He roared.

"Boss. Anger only leads to the Dark Side, you know. I don't think it's the answer to everything." Kir Osh sighed again.

"Shit. Did you send someone to the club?"

"Of course: Charles and Martin just reached there and will handle things until the Melbourne police come: they were busy in the city center because there was some riot or another."

"This is Charles. We've freed Obihiro: he looks like he's been unconscious for a while… Anaya left behind that knife she stabbed into Omega's back and the stun gun but that's all…"

"Shit. Now I remember that, before I built Omega, I did show her the schematics for him and for my armor… I forgot afterwards and I wouldn't have thought she remembered them…! Shit! I'm such a useless moron, a Bruce Wayne wannabe…!" He punched a wall.

"You need REST. Then we'll TALK." Lartes took over the channel and was strict: his tone didn't admit a reply.

"… You're right. Else I'll be like Snake and turn into a decrepit old man in less than 5 years…" He grumbled.

"You know Snake was programmed to purposely age at an accelerated speed: you weren't. I've studied your genome over and over again and you know it, Boss." Lartes dully reminded him.

"Fine. I need rest. And tell Obihiro I'm sorry I was late."

"Alright." Charles replied.

"We'll do."

"Shit. This is turning TOO dangerous. What's happened all of a sudden? Up until now…" Lander grumbled.

"They've finally gotten serious." Davis sentenced.

"Looks pretty bad, man… I'll have to replace that piece myself: in the meanwhile just materialize using your Navi frame…" Kir Osh was apparently examining Omega's damage.

"Fine." He calmly replied.

"Sorry, Omega. I messed it up."

"Don't blame yourself, Boss. As you said: we couldn't expect that woman to remember the schematics you showed her over 7 years ago. What I need is training…"

Vadous formed a portal and stepped in: he got transported to the HQ and stepped out into the corridor, looking beaten and hanging his head down, probably admitting defeat.

"Mister Vadous… What's with that face?" Trill suddenly asked.

"I'm tired." He merely replied.

"Mister Vadous should sleep more. If Mister Vadous sleeps more, he'll be stronger. Or so Iris – oneechan says."

"Your oneechan is right. It's just that… Forget it. I need to rest or else we won't anywhere."

He dragged his feet into a nearby room having only a bed and a desk and calmly took out his armor to reveal he only had black boxers beneath is as clothing: he climbed into the bed and quickly pulled the blankets over him yet he ended up staring at the ceiling.

"For someone who's supposed to turn 27 next year I still feel like I'm 18 instead." He muttered.

"Can't be helped, Boss." A voice told him.

"Daratsu…"

Daratsu was a guy about Vadous' age who had brown hair and blue eye irises: he had a small cut on the SW corner of his chin which looked recent.

His clothes were a plain black wool sweater, wool pants, socks and sandals.

He had a purple Alphabet "D" letter hand-drawn on the middle of his chest as if identifying him.

"I too feel like I'm younger than my body is. Maybe it's inevitable seeing what we are." He sat down on the floor next to the bed.

"Yeah. You and I are the same, after all. Nelaus… He's had years to grow up… He doesn't have that same problem, fortunately enough. It makes me wonder if Kanou had that… Maybe he found a way around it during his trips… Whatever… I need to… sleep…"

He finally fell asleep from exhaust and Daratsu sighed as he stood up and silently exited the room, shutting the door.

_You try to do too much stuff at once and you collapse, Boss. You know it yet your instinct won't let you move at a slower pace… If only there was a way to help you go back to a normal pacing… Oh man. These are dangerous times indeed… At least Trill's innocent smile comforts me every day, and I realize there's something worth fighting for… I won't disappoint you, Trill… Your Mister Daratsu will beat the bad guys! You can do it, Boss, you can… For the time being… Just rest. We'll handle the rest!_


	12. Chapter 12: True purpose

**Chapter 12: True purpose**

08:18 AM (Japan Time), Tuesday November the 27th…

"… Hi there! Obihiro – kun!"

"Meijin – san…! Thank you for coming, sir…"

"_San wa iranai_."

"Even so…"

"I've got a joke for you. It goes like this… At a restaurant… "Waiter: this horse meat is so hard that it can't be eaten!"… "Sir… We've run out of horse: that's the carriage"…"

"Hah, hah, hah! C-carriage steak…! That's so good…!"

"See?"

"T-thank you, sir…"

"Don't mind it. Today I took a free day for your sake."

"R-really, sir?"

"Really."

"T-thank you, sir."

"Don't mind it."

Meijin came to visit Obihiro (wearing the hospital clothes) at the hospital: he was sitting in an armchair next to the bed and had been going over a scientific magazine: he sat on a chair in front of him and Obihiro laughed at the joke Meijin told him: he then sighed and formed a weak smile while Meijin tried to encourage him by placing his hands over his shoulders.

"I've got more, see… A man climbs into an open car. And he suddenly yells. "Mr. Policeman! They've stolen the handle, the brake, the accelerator, the gear shift… All of them!"… "A-are you sure of it, sir?"… "Ah, no! I now found them: I'd climbed into the backseat!"…"

"Hah, hah, hah! That's a good one as well!" Obihiro laughed at it.

"More! A duck tells a duck… "We're ducked!"…"

"We're ducked…!"

"Mr. Smiles tells Ms. Smiles… "We're smiled!"…"

"Smiled…!"

"…"But, then, something horrific and terrific happened!"… "He broke his finger's nail?"…"

"Hah, hah, hah! You call breaking a finger's nail "horrific" and "terrific"?"

"… "So I mixed genes, tissues, bulbs, glands, dung, several bugs' hypophysis…"… "And you got created Valencia-style _paella_!"… "No, man! You've never heard of test tube babies? The guy created a test tube mister!"… This is from a humor Spanish comic-book… It's totally chaotic and doesn't have the slightest of realism to begin with so don't be surprised by how stupid it sounds."

"Test tube mister… With all of those things? Oh come on!" Obihiro found it laughable indeed.

"I know."

"Thank you, Meijin – san… I feel better… I missed hearing some that really made me laugh… It's been too long…" He sighed and glanced outside of the window.

"Dr. Lartes came to talk with you, right?"

"Yes, sir… He told me he'd soon have that chip implant with upgraded security ready… I feel like a coward but I can't face it, face that endless nightmare…" He muttered.

"Look. It's nothing to be ashamed of, Obihiro – kun. We've all got something we don't want to remember."

"Yes, sir, yet…"

"Don't be ashamed. You're a genius."

"W-well, sir, that's true but…"

"Relax. Nothing will change. Your discoveries on the relationship between EM radiation and DAs have helped us boost those a lot. They're now more stable and resistant." Meijin told him.

"Really, sir?"

"Really."

"I'm so glad, sir… My effort finally yielded results…"

"I was about to tell you one of these days once I'd finished compiling all of the experiment data… I'm sorry that I didn't realize you felt like they hadn't contributed at all…"

"I see, sir…"

"… "All's ready… Bio-rhythm accelerator… Biological mutation condenser… Bath at 47 Celsius… Science is about to deliver a true HIT!"… THUD! "GLGLGL!"…"

"True hit and he gets hit, huh?" Obihiro laughed at the joke.

"Yeah."

"I suddenly felt some kind of _déjà vu_, even." He muttered.

"How odd. I had the same feeling. Mysteries of life?"

"Maybe, sir."

"Ah yes. By the way… I've got a discount ticket for Maha Ichiban's so when you're told you can leave we can go there and have a meal." Meijin showed him two tickets.

"Cool! Thank you, sir!"

"It's nothing!"

"By the way, sir… What is Dragon – san's latest banner?"

"Oh, that? "Evils, ghosts, blizzards, dragons and metals shall challenge all those hold the 8 Holy Scrolls."…"

"S-sounds like a parody of the 3rd gen Pokémon games…" He sighed.

"Yeah. Because it means the types of PKMN the Big 4 and the Champion employ. And the 8 "holy scrolls" actually are the 8 Gym Badges."

"Fine. I see that the lameness of them hasn't changed a bit."

"Sorry."

"You're not to blame, sir."

"Excuse me." Someone knocked at the door.

"Come in." Meijin replied.

Kir Osh came in while having a small box wrapped with paper and it seemed to be a present.

"I think we hadn't met before. My name's Kir Osh. I'm a pal of Dr. Lartes at the Subspace." He introduced himself.

"Ah yes… The maintenance person, was it?"

"Yeah. I brought you a present."

"Really, sir?"

"Really. Here you have."

"T-thank you, sir."

"It's nothing."

Obihiro removed the paper and gasped when he saw that it was a miniature of a Ferrari F-One car: he opened the box and quickly began to look at it from several spots: Kir Osh smiled and looked animated that he'd made a good choice.

"Wow! I didn't have this one yet!"

"Oh my. You collect racing car miniatures? I've got a classic car collection myself." Meijin admitted.

"Yes, sir… I wanted something in which I could focus my enthusiasm and though of starting a collection of racing car miniatures… How did you know that, Kir Osh – san?" Obihiro asked him.

"I asked Binada – san, the nurse that was taking care of you."

"I see… Thank you very much, sir."

"It's nothing. The least I could do."

"Even so, sir…"

"Don't bother about the details, man! Just enjoy."

"Enjoy… Yes, sir…" He muttered.

"See? Just calm down and enjoy the clean day. How about you went to walk at the inner gardens?" Kir Osh suggested.

"Good idea, sir…"

"I'll come along. I did say I'm going to be here the whole day."

"B-but, sir, the researches…"

"The others can handle those. Don't worry about that."

"Thank you, sir."

"It's nothing."

"Well then, I'll be going back. Dr. Lartes told me he'll drop by at the evening to deliver the goods. See ya."

"See you."

"Goodbye, sir."

Kir Osh left while Obihiro and Meijin headed outside of the room: Meijin shut the door and they headed over to the elevators and the floor's nurse office.

"We'll be in the gardens." Meijin told a nurse.

"Acknowledged."

"Enjoy… I think I can find something I can enjoy…" Obihiro muttered.

_Maybe the air in the gardens will give me an idea… _

14: 44 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Heh, heh, heh…"

"There ya are!"

"Huh? Sigma Ma Man! Been a while!"

"GHGHAGTH!"

"Hit a vibe~?"

"What are ya lot up to, huh?"

"Dunno."

"I'll get some answers outta ya!"

"Bring it on, Smarty!"

"GHDAGGTGKF!"

"Martin V 2009.11?"

"Shaddup!"

Cloud Man had been jumping across Internet City's rooftops when Sigma intercepted him: Cloud Man wasn't surprised and began to taunt Sigma, who got annoyed more than once as evidenced by his undecipherable growling.

"Heh, heh, heh. Beware! Vincent, the Golden and Supreme!"

"What the fuck? The guy's turned crazier, even?" Sigma grumbled.

"I'm Crazy Man V 2009.11!"

"How lame." He fumed.

"He says Bat Man is but a half-Vampire Man!"

"Half-Vampire Man? Sheesh."

"Why stop at Bat-Man and not be Vampire Man the 66th?"

"The guy should be closed in the madhouse. For real."

"What is this scandal?"

"Ugro~h! YOU!"

"Yes. Me."

"Hey, Xon' Edos! This is my target! My mission is to defeat them!"

"Ah. Then I shall not get in the way of your mission, Sigma. I shall watch: if they were to use some… cheat… then I shall attack."

"Fine."

Xon' Edos happened to appear there while looking annoyed at the noise they were causing: Cloud Man gasped in horror and recoiled, afraid, but Sigma complained so Xon' Edos floated a couple meters away while turning dull and unimpressed.

"Is there a point to that body armor?" A voice asked to Xon' Edos over his radio yet Sigma and Cloud Man didn't hear it.

"Increases outer shell…" He merely replied.

"So attacks cannot reach the Ultimate Program." Another voice, a woman-like voice, concluded.

"In essence."

"Cross Thunder!"

"Hrah! Lightning Rod!"

"How clever! You stole it from Manetric – sama~?"

"GHKATH!"

"What is the point of that?" A third voice asked.

"There is none. Psychological warfare, if you must."

"Records say that in warfare times it was widely employed." Another woman commented.

"Indeed. Yet… How should I say it? This is a lesser form of it."

"Lesser form?"

"Indeed. It is… an attack to one's pride. Unit 1."

"Ah. That I understand."

"This is Unit 2. You said they could manipulate anti-matter, Unit 5."

"Correct."

"Unit 3 is speaking… That does not seem to be it."

"Do not be impatient if you may." Xon' Edos calmly told them.

"I am Unit 4. Understood."

"By my might! I know your greatest weakness: the blue shell!"

"Don't bring up _Mario Kart_ next, you rascal!"

"Mwah, hah, hah."

"Eat sword!"

"Ugrah!"

"How's that for a change?"

"It tickles, man!"

"Sheesh."

Cloud Man and Sigma were fighting and each seemed to dodge the other's attack: Sigma built up energy on his blade and delivered a blow to Cloud Man using its side: it sent him flying and landing on the rooftop behind him so Sigma chased him there: he stood up and chuckled as if it'd been no big deal so Sigma got annoyed.

"Sigma. Cool it down." Omega ordered through the radio.

"Yes, sir…! Come!"

"And leave!"

"That your best shot?" Omega taunted.

"Huh! No!" He grumbled.

"So all of those earlier tactics were but a disguise."

"Whaddya say~?"

"What is happening now?" Unit 2 asked.

"The commander of that black Net Navi is laying out a trap for the opponent… To force them to show what they can really do and thus assess their danger level…" Xon' Edos explained.

"Hum. I see. There are records of similar tactics." Unit 3 muttered.

"You're asking for it! Dark Generator: on! Dark _Bunshin_! _Go To Hell_!"

Cloud Man got pissed off so he turned on the Dark Generator and formed the "Dark _Bunshin_": it suddenly disappeared while heading for Sigma: Cloud Man seemed to frown under the helmet and then gasped as he looked over his right shoulder and saw it racing for him.

"Devil! Area Steal!"

He warped out of the thing's path and it suddenly fell inside of the ground: Cloud Man looked above him and saw it falling from nowhere in the sky towards him: he used another Area Steal but the thing kept on chasing him no matter where he ran off to.

"Enough! 100,000 Volts!"

He formed an arc of electricity around his blade and shot it at the "Dark _Bunshin_": it suddenly glowed white and formed a shockwave: Cloud Man jumped over the edge of the rooftop and towards the street to dodge it as it swept across the air in a 5 meters radius before vanishing: he sighed in relief and landed on the street: he heard something behind him and when he turned he found a familiar black gigantic fist heading for his face: it hit him fully and knocked into the ground, making him let of the blade along the way: Sigma loomed over him and grabbed him by the neck.

"Confess!"

"The _revolución_ will happen in less than 66 hours!" He shot back.

"That's not what…! Uack!"

"Metto! Metto!"

"Shit! Legion 64!"

In effect: a Mettool had suddenly flung itself towards Sigma's head from behind and hit him so he instinctively let of Cloud Man: some more of them began to assault him.

"Grr! Tornado!"

He formed a tornado and sent the Mettools flying in all directions before focusing on Cloud Man who was loading up electricity on the blade again but Sigma suddenly formed the Lightning Rod that absorbed it: Cloud Man grumbled and Sigma quickly raced for him: Cloud Man raced for him too and they clashed blades.

"I ain't gonna go down so easily! I ain't Ganondorf!"

"Hmpf! Your petty master is Ganon to begin with! The guy did that on the summer, no?" Sigma reminded him.

"Sheesh." Cloud Man grumbled.

"Enough, Cloud Man!" Freeze Man ordered.

"Yes, _Danna_…! You were lucky… Next time things will be different!"

The Remote Gate formed behind the guy and he jumped inside before it vanished: Sigma fumed while Omega grumbled.

"Damned mice." Omega grumbled.

"Yes, sir. Indeed, sir."

"Whatever. Go back to your post."

"Roger, sir."

"That tactic has worth to it: we'll employ it more often from now on. It should give them some headaches they deserve." Omega muttered.

"Roger, sir."

"I'll go to the scene to see if I can pick something."

"Alright, sir."

Sigma ran off as a portal opened and Omega stepped in: he signaled for Xon' Edos to come down so he did come down.

"Did you check your spaceship's security?"

"I did. And I thought that fool never tried the same twice." Xon' Edos calmly replied.

"You never know."

"Point taken."

"Good. We're back to hunting for those fools but they won't make it so easy. At least we're working up counter strategies. You should be on the lookout for those cheat abilities."

"I am. I have developed counters of my own as well."

"Alright. I'm going to hunt around. See you."

"Let us meet again."

Xon' Edos floated back into the air as Omega raced off: he sighed and formed a portal of his own to reappear inside of his spacecraft's Cyber World: several holographic screens formed around him and he checked them out.

"No abnormalities. Good. I apologize for interrupting our live discussion: I had some discussion to do with someone." He told the other Units.

"That crimson swordsman, is that not it?" Unit 1 guessed.

"Indeed."

"That tactic was surprising. How did it work like?" Unit 2 asked.

"Very simple. Sigma, the black Navi, set up several warp devices' entries and exits there and there: the antimatter body would step into one and come out through the exit."

"To think that a Network civilization that is only about 4 decades old can already master antimatter and space-tunnels…!"

"Indeed. Some have the intelligence and the skills needed to build those but it is a very, very rare thing."

"So it is limited to a few some." Unit 3 muttered.

"Indeed."

"The planet I am overseeing has just managed to establish "cities" in the Cyber World… They are not that far away from yours, Unit 5." Unit 1 explained.

"You all have made sure none of your planets are in immediate range of Duo's flight path, am I right?" Xon' Edos reminded them.

"Mine is the closest yet at Duo's speed it will still be about 730 years before it appears. Since Duo's top speed is a fifth of the speed of light then it is 146 light-years away." Unit 4 admitted.

"Good. More than enough time to build the necessary means to fight back against it… Fortunately, it has not had an opportunity to recharge its core to perform "erasure" from orbit…" Xon' Edos darkly muttered.

"Yes. Fortunately enough." Unit 4 sighed in relief.

"You said Duo has been plunged into that spot by some "humans" that knew about its coming." Unit 1 brought up.

"Yes. They felt like they lacked the means to engage Duo head-on and, at the same time, impede it from descending into the planet. So they thought it was the best solution with the means at hand. It has not even been 5 years so Duo has not even travelled 1 light-year."

"If you say it was back in 15 years then… That would mean that it travelled slightly over 1 light year and then returned… Is there any nearby star outside of your solar system?" Unit 2 asked.

"There is one: Alpha Centauri. But it is 4.37 light-years away. It would take Duo about 22 years to reach it." Xon' Edos replied.

"Hum. Maybe it was trying to explore the borders and see at what point the influence of the local sun vanishes…" Unit 3 speculated.

"There is a probe on that region that is doing the same… Yet the scientists here expect it to take a few more years to reach that edge. They still lack actual field data about what exactly marks the transition between one space and the other." Xon' Edos explained.

"I see. Our Creators never paid too much attention to that once they discovered faster than light travel." Unit 4 commented.

"True, they did not."

"Some research was being conducted in Colony 3 but it all came to halt after the Erasure Day." Unit 1 brought up.

"The other units… They have not been deployed yet. Right?" Unit 3 suddenly asked.

"No. Else we would all know. It is no wonder. At top speed, Explorer One can only reach half of the speed of light. It would take about 9 years to reach Alpha Centauri. It has been about a year. It still has 8 ahead of them of travel." Unit 2 explained.

"Ah yes. I was not conscious that you have just been activated, Unit 5. I had the distinct impression it had been longer." Unit 3 admitted while sounding slightly surprised.

"I have been active for 18 years myself." Unit 4 told Unit 3.

"And I have for 29 years."

"37 years." Unit 2 calmly reported.

"46 years." Unit 1 added.

"Only?" Xon' Edos frowned.

"Does it strike you as odd, Unit 5?"

"But… Something is out of place, then."

"What is it?"

"I have seen the records of the space-city that reached this planet… The zone they landed at was populated by creatures named "dinosaurs"… And those became extinct _millions of years_ ago! And the Space-Cities were _after_ the Explorer One set off! Something is odd." Xon' Edos argued.

"True." Unit 1 gasped.

"What could that mean?" Unit 4 wondered.

"That Explorer One spent _millions of years_ wandering with the Command Units in cold sleep… To give time to the Great Seeding Project to give birth to successes… 5 planets with Network civilization in such a small radius? If you say, Unit 1, that you were activated only 46 years ago… Explorer One must have travelled only 23 light-years! 5 planets with similar concepts in a 23 light-years radius… This is NO coincidence!"

"But, then, the Great Seeding…?" Unit 2 realized.

"The Great Seeding was not limited to creating life in planets that had the potential to bear it… It also stimulated the intelligent creatures to build civilizations and undergo phases… They must be subconscious signals no – one has detected… Because they must exploit time-space physics… And there must be some central intelligence that chooses its targets amongst the general population…" Xon' Edos realized.

"By the stars!" The other units gasped.

"And we are in each one's planets to make sure that species that has taken so much time and effort to drive to that phase does not go extinct or commits mistakes like them, the Creators, did…"

"So we are not mere ambassadors… We are protectors of each planet's civilizations?" Unit 1 gasped.

"Indeed. It makes sense." Xon' Edos insisted.

"I do see… Maybe they wanted us to figure that out by ourselves and thus not even the Command Units knew…" Unit 2 muttered.

"And now that you mention it… That there are a total of 10 units to be deployed must be no coincidence." Unit 4 guessed.

"I see. 5 colonies. 2 of each colony. I guess the Command Units were designed by joint teams from all of the colonies." Xon' Edos rubbed his chin.

"Surprising that we had not thought of something so simple until now: we were too focused on each one's missions." Unit 1 was still surprised.

"Indeed we were."

"Yet… That must mean that each planet's Great Seeder is still active and monitoring everything…" Unit 3 deduced.

"Hum. It would be best if we ignored their signals. They have further authority than us." Xon' Edos suggested.

"I am of the same opinion." Unit 2 told the others.

"Good. Then there is no need to further discuss that matter. We have all reached a satisfactory conclusion."

"Would that mean, on the long run, all these planets will become like the colonies? At a technological level, I mean." Unit 4 suddenly seemed to have a new idea.

"It is not too far-fetched. The Creators must have had that idea on mind during the planning of the Great Seeding."

"Some calculations show me that the Explorer One might be actually drawing a spiral course, from the outer edges of the galaxy to the very core…" Unit 1 told everyone.

"And this region happened to be on its way… Happened? No. The spiral course was plotted to stall for time… By the time Explorer One reached those planets they would have civilizations and Cyber World."

"Yet that would not alter our primary purpose, would it?" Unit 3 asked.

"It should not. Let us return to our immediate duties." Unit 2 replied.

"Those are wise words." Unit 4 muttered.

"Wise indeed. We have our own mission to fulfill…" Xon' Edos muttered.

17:03 PM (Japan Time)…

"… So?"

"Stop stalking me."

"Yeah! Go leech someone else, newcomer!"

"Nobody asked cha to get in the way!"

"Ahem, ahem."

"Yikes!"

"Karazawa – chan. We need to talk. Come to the teacher's room."

"Y-yes, _sensei_… You got lucky…!"

"I – heard – that."

"YIKES!"

"Phew."

"About time."

Nelaus had just come out of his classroom along with Aura when Kanazawa suddenly barred his path and tried to force him to explain things: Nelaus was far from impressed and Aura got into annoyed mood: Karazawa fumed but then a female teacher behind her that came out of the 4-B classroom cleared her throat behind Karazawa: she felt a shiver go down her spine and turned around: the teacher signaled for her to follow and she muttered something under her breath but the teacher heard it and got annoyed: Nelaus and Aura walked down the corridor.

"See you tomorrow!" Eboshi told them as he quickly walked back.

"See you, Eboshi."

"Bye, Eboshi – kun."

"Well. At least everything's gone back to normal… for now."

"That villain…! Where the heck are they?"

"That, Aura – chan, is the million Z question."

"I knew that."

"Well, no offense, but you don't seem to."

"Fine." She fumed.

_Girls. _Nelaus rolled his eyes and inwardly sighed.

"Bye, Nelaus."

"See you tomorrow."

"See ya, guys."

Netto and Saito walked past them (they were now on the stairs) and waved bye so he replied as well: they reached the ground floor and everyone began to change their shoes before exiting: Nelaus and Aura did the same and they continued their walk back.

"Huff. Sorry for the delay. Scherezade was scolding me for saying I'm the root of her Operator's spy mania." Isaac appeared on the PET.

"What a stubborn gal!" Felicia fumed.

"What were ya expecting?" Meiru suddenly joined them.

"Seven a half ducks?" Yaito giggled.

"Maybe you need a cold bath?" Meiru dully questioned her.

"N-no!" She gasped.

"Then behave."

"A-alright. Sheesh." She muttered.

"Yaito – sama: let us be constructive."

"It's useless, Glyde. You know it." Roll sighed.

"Ooyama got punished again?" Arushi caught up with them.

"Yeah. For saying Maeda – sensei is a monkey."

"Mugro~h! Monkey – donkey!" Balrog made up a lame pun.

"How original. Coming from you." Hikawa muttered as he joined Arushi and rolled his eyes.

"Desu?" Ice Man wondered.

"_Banzai_! The Cloaked Challenger appears! De masu! I challenge you to a duel with my Muramasa Blade!"

Higure suddenly showed up while wearing a worn out black cloak and a straw hat: he drew a poster with the Muramasa blade drawn on it while he made what seemed to be a challenging pose but everyone ignored him and walked past him: he gasped and turned around.

"Yamitarou… What about the store?" Number Man sighed.

"MASU~!"

"Hmpf. And here I thought it was one of the mice." Dark Miyabi peeked from a nearby corner and looked unpleased.

"Useless scandal indeed…" Shadow Man grumbled.

"You never know." Yuriko whispered from behind Miyabi.

"Shah, shah, shah! Those guys are capable of anythin'!" Needle Man reminded them.

"You needn't remind me." Dark Miyabi dully replied.

"Hmmm? I felt something… Who lives?" Shadow Man questioned.

"Do not fret. It is me, Magic Man. I was running some errands for Maha Jarama – sama."

"Hmmm… What happened to your comrade in arms Dream Man?"

"D-Dream Man? Comrade in arms? There's never been any Dream Man in the WWW as far as I know." He sounded taken aback.

"Hum… Well then. What happened to Maha Niban's?"

"We closed it and moved back here."

"When was that again?"

"April-May, 2005…"

"Fine. By the way: your Operator was a medium before, no?"

"No, no. A Yoga Master."

"Hmmm…"

"Data is consistent." Needle Man whispered.

"Magic Man? What's taking so long?"

"I apologize, Maha Jarama – sama, but Shadow Man seems to be questioning whether I am the real Magic Man or an imposter." Magic Man reported.

"I understand your concern for Neo Gospel but… Isn't this being too paranoid?" Maha complained.

"He's got a point. The data matches." Wily called out.

"And some annoying data will soon be gone! N-S Tackle!"

"Ugrah! Stealth attack… AGAIN!" Elec Man grumbled.

"Hoh, hoh, hoh! I am invincible~!" Tesla laughed.

"YOU! TESLA! AGAIN!" Count Elec cursed.

"Yes, Uncle! I shall prove that I above the wreck you are!"

"Wreck! Me! _Aniki_~!"

"T-that wasn't me!" Gauss gasped.

"No! Father isn't involved. It's my own free will!"

"Get there. We'll go there too." Shadow Man grumbled.

"R-roger."

Shadow Man and Needle Man followed Magic Man into Maha Ichiban's where Elec Man was clashing his Elec Swords against Magnet Man's ruler.

"If needed I'll take you down with me like 5 years ago!"

"Your precious kiddo isn't here to stop me!"

"But we are." Shadow Man drew his _katana_.

"Shah, shah, shah! Wanna brawl?" Needle Man challenged.

"Sheesh. The Net Saviors…! Faster than expected…!" Magnet Man looked up, annoyed.

"Bamboo Sword!"

"Ugrah! Gruh! Shit!"

"Wha~t?" Tesla gasped.

"Hah! I've learnt, you foolish niece! Flee!" Count Elec chuckled.

"Damn it all. I'm not in a condition to face them all. I'll be back and I'll bury you ghost of the past!"

"You yourself included?" Wily taunted.

"Sheesh!" He grumbled as if knowing Wily had a point.

"Huh-oh." Gauss gulped.

Magnet Man ran off and Elec Man sighed in relief: Count Elec grinned but Wily directed an ill-humored glare at him so he rushed for the kitchen to help Maha: Wily fumed.

"Damned interlopers." He grumbled.

"True. As if we didn't have enough of 'em!" Hinoken grumbled.

"You be quiet." Wily ordered.

Hinoken gulped and resumed wiping the tables: Madoi rolled her eyes and sighed while she resumed cleansing the ground with the broom: Fire Man was helping with the kitchen and Colored Man was also organizing the menus in the Cyber World.

_We can't lower the guard. Those fools are relentless… _


	13. Chapter 13: In a far, far away planet

**Chapter 13: In a far, far away planet**

11:11 AM (Utah Time), Sunday December the 2nd…

"… So. You have called for me?"

"Yes. We would like to hear something from you…"

"Regarding the Creators? Fine. It is about time I fulfilled one of my missions: to tell the tale of their rise and downfall."

"Excellent."

"It may get long. Maybe it would be best for you to make the necessary preparations such as chairs."

"Good. Bring some chairs."

"Roger."

Xon' Edos appeared inside of a control room somewhere having several control consoles: one of them had several screens packed above it and showed imagery of different spots of a crater somewhere and some parts of a large tower: Yuuichirou and some other scientists were present there and Yuuichirou stated why they'd called him so he invited them to take a seat.

"You may begin."

"Good. This goes back several million years… Somewhere in the Orion Arm of the Milky Way… There was a planet. Life flourished on it. And eventually one species began to gain collective intelligence and began to form civilizations. That would be around this planet's "Late Jurassic" age… Over 5 million years ago."

"5 million years ago…!" One scientist nervously muttered.

"Over the course of many millennia… The civilizations began to grow, they clashed, they developed inventions, they expanded, they decreased… And they finally realized something… If they did not reach unity amongst all civilizations, chances were high that they would wipe each other sooner or later. The fear of complete extinction was omnipresent."

"I see." Yuuichirou muttered.

"Eventually… After some decades of struggling and warfare… People began to see that those who predicted annihilation were on the right track… Even the fools behind the warfare feared for their own destruction as well… So, little by little, warfare began to cease. And all civilizations across the planet began to realize they had to remain united. Some initial spatial explorations led them to realize the magnitude of the Universe: and a new fear began to grow. That of an external invader. Yes. Like how it often happens in your "science-fiction" movies…"

"So the fear of an external invader moved them to abandon differences and unite?" Another scientist asked.

"Correct. So they decided to abandon nationalities and politics and religion and such they focused on one thing that would unite them: science. Science would tell them how to defend against an external invader. So science became practically the only thing that was taught and practiced… Apart from commerce and a lesser level of politics…"

"Lesser level of politics?" Yuuichirou frowned.

"Yes. Those politics meant no real authority yet there was a Ruling Council that ensured peace across the planet: there were 6 representatives from each continent… And then there was the Commerce Guild which ensured delivery of necessary components and materials across the planet as well…"

"Sorry to cut you, but… Did those "Creators" look like us or…?" One researcher suddenly asked.

"Ah yes. I thought I myself would be clear enough to say it. I mean… My design should be a hint, no?"

"Good point."

"So… Before you continue… How did they behave at a social level? How was society like?" A woman researcher asked.

"Ah. Good question. I shall explain."

"Good."

"After planetary unity… Society stuck to a routine and some principles yet they abandoned a lot of their emotions and culture for the sake of science and research…"

"They became machines?" The woman researcher asked.

"Hum. You could say so. They lacked joy, anger, sadness… Life-spans reached a top of 100 years as well…"

"Yet… How did they reproduce?"

"At some point they saw it necessary to abandon all "sexuality" because it would interfere with research and all children were born via genetic engineering in labs. A male and female may decide to form a union and then they would reach an agreement on the gender of the child. They would come to a lab, hand over the necessary genetic material, and decide what genes they wanted to boost… In 100% of the cases, learning and intelligence were boosted. What did that mean? They learnt faster and they were born with some basic instincts and knowledge. For the first 5 years they would be taught by either a virtual tutor, that is, a Net Navi, or, alternatively, by one of the parents."

"Feels cold and distant." She muttered.

"Yes. Another thing that was sacrificed in the altar of science."

"So what happened next?"

"Once they turned 6 they would enter school and they would study for 6 years. Afterwards, they immediately joined the lab their parents worked at and were put in charge of some research. They were encouraged to learn through real experimentation."

"Researching at age 12…!" She was surprised.

"Yes. There were, however, a few exceptions. Basic commerce and politics were taught in the last year of school. And some children decided to chase those careers indeed. They would become assistants to regional chiefs and their own offices… For a period of 4 years."

"And then? They could legally become a new chief or politician?"

"Yes. Politics was a very dull job: looking up daily reports and making sure there was nothing that could lead to warfare. Make sure there were no weapons or violence… Sometimes travel to regions and assess the situation themselves…"

"But they had no influence on opening or establishing new labs?"

"No. The Science Council decided that."

"So their lives were very dull indeed."

"Yes. But they were born to accept that routine was it all. There was nothing else in life. Routine was life. Sometimes they would look up records of the past and say that their ancestors were too "barbaric" and would show no further interest in their cultures."

"Yikes." One of the scientists gulped.

"Discovery of "hyper-space" made it possible to travel beyond their solar system and they found 5 planets in other systems that could be colonized: they were and the 5 colonies were born. They were all within a 20 light-year radius of the home world. They were soon colonized and the Commerce Guild soon began to exploit resources there and handle the transport between the colonies and the home world yet… They'd suddenly turned too powerful. They realized they could make the home world and the colonies do as they wanted if they desired supplies… And they began to influence the Ruling Council… And thus a forgotten emotion suddenly resurfaced… Greed!"

"Greed!" Everyone muttered.

"Greed. Indeed. Greed for power, for influence. Old records showed them how there had been a dominant class that had a life of luxury: they had had no need to work. So… Sloth followed. And thus both parties became linked in their plots of greed and sloth. The Science Council was unable to control them. Their demands turned wilder and arrogant. Arrogance had awakened as well. Things were turning chaotic. Some of the pure Creators began to draw emergency plans, foreseeing doom for their species."

"By all the…" Everyone was tense.

"They quickly prepared 2 projects: Great Seeding and Explorer One. Their leaders secretly met in spots away from the colonies, away from the eyes of those impure ones. Great Seeding would be a biological device that would ensure seeding of a planet and would ensure that there would be enough biomass to give rise to new intelligent species there. Explorer One would be a large, fast spacecraft with deployable units… They would be ambassadors and gift other planets with wisdom, guide them to avoid the same mistakes the fools were doing… Both projects began to be built in top secrecy." Xon' Edos narrated.

"And annihilation war happened?"

"No. Something worse."

"What was it?"

"The fools wanted yet more power. So they decided to build a heartless program installed in a spacecraft that would punish the colonies if they did not behave. By then those fools began to treat the colonies' citizens as "second-class" and gave them no relevance and no political representatives. They had no self-government either. All the orders came from the home world. And that heated up things. Not unlike what has happened here during the great colonization period… And each colony's eventual independence." Xon' Edos told them.

"Devil. We've already made the same mistake they did." A scientist was terrified, even.

"They camouflaged their real intentions saying that that project would help administer their Network from the Universe, argued that it had become chaotic and someone had to control it and put order to it. When the colonies heard of that they speeded up the 2 projects. Great Seeding was about 95% completed when tragedy struck."

"Tragedy struck? Civil war?"

"No. The oppressive project, code-named "Duo", was started. And then something outside of calculations happened."

"Duo…! Is that…?"

"The same one that "revived" Doctor Regal and Oozono Yuriko indeed."

"I see… So what happened?"

"Duo's real programming of "removing all planets that pose a threat to the Universe" was triggered. It looked down (literally) at the planet that had created it and made an announcement across it that halted all activity in one instant. "This planet's Network has achieved a faulty evolution: a civilization which does not have a reason to exist. I shall remove any Network civilization which is threat to the Universe."… And he suddenly turned on the weapon installed onboard and shot it at the planet. Mere instants were enough to turn everything on it into data and then make that data erase itself. The home world was gone. Along with 7 billion souls on it. Net Navis included." Xon' Edos explained as he quoted.

"Holy…!" All recoiled, horrified.

"Yes. Their own foolishness led 80% of the species to annihilation. Because they forgot to tell Duo "all planets SAVE for OUR planet"… And Duo took its programming literally as it was written. It then started to fly towards the colonies. But, fortunately, given its mass of about 4.05 million tons and its length of 200 meters… It was too massive to use hyper-space: so it could only speed to a fifth of the speed of light at the best. The nearest colony was 10 light-years away. That gave them a 50 year margin of time to prepare counter-measures. And time to end the projects."

"Hard to believe they were so blind…!" The woman researcher muttered.

"They had abandoned wisdom and let themselves be ruled by unworthy emotions… They were blind with power…" Yuuichirou muttered.

"Great Seeding was completed: hyper-space capable automated ships were sent to some promising planets to prepare for their seeding. About 2 years later… Explorer One was ready. 2 Command Units would lead it and would deploy each of the 10 Explorer Units into those planets if they had a Network technology. So as to guide them."

"I see."

"Fact is, I and my fellow units discovered something very recently and it makes sense if you stop to think about it."

"And what is it?"

"Unit 1 was activated not even half a century ago. And all of those happenings date 6 million years ago. What happened during that 6 million year gap? Why had the activation been SO recent? And how could it be that 5 planets in a 23 light year radius had the same Network technology that we were to monitor?"

"That CAN'T be a coincidence." The female researched noted.

"Then we realized. Explorer One had been travelling in a plotted spiral-shaped path across the Milky Way. And, in the meanwhile, the Seeders did their job. And they surely have an AI monitoring each one that is programmed to subconsciously influence the intelligent species to build a Network civilization. It must closely monitor people and decides, upon seeing their ideas, to encourage them. It may also influence people with the necessary influence to make it happen too. Something must have happened in the age of your predecessor, Doctor Hikari Tadashi."

"So then… Dad was influenced by an alien AI to build the Cyber World? I see…" He looked disappointed.

"I know it makes you feel disappointed that it was not his idea: but maybe he did have the basic idea and the AI made him expand upon it."

"How is it that we have never detected those signals? Radio has been around for a century, almost." One scientist argued.

"They must exploit time-space physics and mingle with other environmental waves to escape detection. My mission objectives say nothing about that but I think it would be better not to interfere with it: it could be the guarantee needed to ensure humankind's survival. It might be able to put a halt to any great-scale warfare that could threaten the survival of the species." Xon' Edos exposed.

"I agree with Xon' Edos. It would be better to ignore that AI and let it act as it's supposed to act." Yuuichirou told the others.

"If it's the only guarantee of humankind's survival then that's another motive to hide this info. It's a pity but…" The woman researched sighed in disappointment.

"I know. All of this will be classified yet we'll purposely leave the Seeder out of the records. We do not want some foolish hi-rank man or woman to access that info and misuse it for their petty goals. They could spell doom for humanity, even." Yuuichirou was firm.

"I agree. Sometimes some things are better off not knowing."

"By the way: you mentioned other units… There are 10, no?"

"Yes. I am the fifth to be activated."

"How do you communicate?"

"Hyper-space communications. Allows for live discussion."

"That could be a key component needed for future spatial missions." One scientist noted.

"I am not allowed to disclose details. My mission is not to give you our technology. It is to assess your technology and evolution and warn you so as to not to commit the mistakes that led to that mass destruction." Xon' Edos warned the scientist, and, by extension, the others.

"A-alright." The scientist gulped.

"A warning is a warning."

"By the way… That Explorer One… Where is it now?"

"On its way to Alpha Centauri. Already outside of the Solar System, half-a-light-year away from Earth… Its top speed is half the speed of light so it needs another 7 years to reach Alpha Centauri."

"Speaking of "Duo"… Why didn't it destroy Earth back then?"

"Network technology was yet beginning. Apparently, Duo's program only said to catalog as dangerous planets with a fully evolved Cyber World or one where Net Navis were advanced."

"I see. That's why it turned those 2 into "Probes"… Was Duo expecting them to report to it?"

"I am not sure about that. Maybe there is something on their genes or maybe Duo was intercepting outgoing waves from Earth as it made a round trip." Xon' Edos admitted.

"That sounds like a possibility." The woman researcher muttered.

"This "Past Tunnel" you created… Duo could create one too?"

"It is highly possible. And, obviously, this crater would be wider if Duo had landed given its higher mass."

"You said some org named "Subspace" managed to destroy it?" One researcher asked Yuuichirou.

"No. They couldn't destroy it but at least they could create a warp-hole to warp it deeper into the Milky Way, to make sure it takes forever to come back to Earth. So that it can't pose an immediate threat."

"True. Duo is not to be feared at this stage. It has barely traveled 1 light-year since then. It will take over a million years to reach here again: plenty of time." Xon' Edos calmly replied.

"Phew." The other researchers sighed in relief.

"One question… Did they eat? Your Creators, I mean."

"Synthetic food."

"Wait. I almost forgot. That space-city hidden in the Andes…?"

"A later project. Some feared that they would have good enough counter-measures to face Duo by the time it reached any of the colonies despite the wide window. So they built those and fled in several directions: surely they headed for planets they knew a Seeder existed. I checked the registers of that place but all evidence says that the small crew onboard died of age along with their assistant Net Navis, millions of years ago. The city has survived the passage of time protected by a Dimensional Area that eliminates much of the outside influence and by going into cold sleep."

"A space-city that has survived 6 million years… Along with its databanks as well…!" One of the scientists muttered.

"There's another thing I was wondering… I've heard that Duo had some kind of crest, isn't that right? A password or a key to open doors or systems…"

"The Creator Crest. Shaped after the planetary flag. Duo had one installed and the fool claimed it as being its own creation. It was standard across the planet and the colonies: it works as a biological password because it contains DNA information of the user. So no Crest is unique. And it ensured that only the owner of a system could access it. Of course, if others needed to, the owner could authorize them to. It is like those hand scanners or biometric security systems." He calmly explained.

He opened his right hand and displayed a 3D image: this drawing had a general shape reminiscent of the Alphabet letter "V" but it had two short rectangular extensions close to the base aiming outwards and two small triangles on the inner sides: these triangles were aiming towards a hollow diamond set in the center of the opening: the whole thing was colored black.

"Hum. So that's it. A biometric password…" Yuuichirou muttered.

"Correct. Well. I think that was enough exposition."

"Yes. That'll do for now. We can meet anytime, anyway."

"Exactly. I supposed my presence is still being kept secret except for a limited group of authorized people?"

"Yes. We don't want to start panic or misunderstandings, anyway."

"Excellent. I shall take my leave for today. Remember: lust, greed and arrogance led to their doom. When those blind you… You walk the path to self-destruct. We shall meet again."

Xon' Edos opened a purplish portal behind him and he hovered backwards inside of it while the group looked deep in thought.

_A balance must be found or else we will repeat those same mistakes…_

17:37 PM (Japan Time), Monday December the 3rd…

"…It's getting colder… No wonder… It's already December…"

"Oh my. It's the cute boy from the other day…"

"The mister of the business card?"

"Indeed."

"You wouldn't be a stalker, right?"

"Oh no, no. A gentleman's word."

"Hum."

"My, my. What a skeptical glare."

"Maybe that mister coming over there is a policeman?"

"Oh my. If it isn't my handsome step-brother Yamada Takeshi."

"I-Inosuke Yadeo! You!"

"Indeed!"

"One thing: call me Kir Osh. I grew bored of my own civilian name years ago to begin with."

"My, my."

Eboshi had been sitting in the bench of some days ago and he muttered as he felt the cold wind: Inosuke suddenly showed up and Eboshi looked mistrusting: Eboshi signaled someone casually strolling by and it turned to be Kir Osh who gasped and looked away for a moment as he told Inosuke how to call him.

"It's been so long… I thought you were in Paris."

"Paris? Me? I never said I'd gone to Paris." Kir Osh frowned.

"Oh my. Then I mistook you with someone else. I always was somewhat forgetful." He shrugged.

"Hmpf. You better not be up to some antique."

"Antique? Oh, hoh, hoh. What an odd word coming from a car repair specialist." He laughed.

"Whatever. Eye – have – you."

"My, my."

"What are you doing nowadays, anyway?"

"I'm a consultant for people in trouble. Like that cute boy."

"Oi, oi…"

"What?"

"You reek of _shotacon_." Kir Osh warned.

"Oh yes?"

Eboshi seemed to feel a shiver go down his spine and he quietly stood up to run off: Inosuke saw him by glancing over his left shoulder and was surprised while Kir Osh rolled his eyes.

"Why did you have to scare that cute boy, my step-brother?"

"Better prevent than heal." Kir Osh fumed.

"That mood… Does it mean there's been trouble with some _shotacon_?"

"One hell of a _shotacon_ woman." He grumbled.

"My, my. And here I thought women were kinder."

"I've seen a lot of them. And none were kind."

"How terrible. It ruins the beauty of it."

"_Shotacon_ can be legally punished, you know."

"What?" He gasped.

"Yeah. Especially if you force the other to do it."

"I d-don't force anyone! Never did!" He protested back.

"You don't strike as being as sadist and never did but, nevertheless…"

"Alright, alright. So you're telling me to stay away from cute boys until you can figure out if I say the truth?"

"Yeah. Crossing paths with them is not guilty but if I see you bringing them to your place then that's suspicious. I'm going to ask someone I know to look up your file. This is a warning, Yadeo."

"My, my. Can't be helped, can it? I'll be going back to my office: and let's meet again one day. Handsome step-brother… Or, rather… Ally of justice… Heh, heh, heh."

He chuckled and walked away: Kir Osh directed a suspicious glare at the guy but then fumed and walked through the park as he drew his PET and dialed a number.

"This is Colonel Talos." A voice with a foreign accent replied.

"Colonel? It's me, Kir Osh. If possible, I'd like of the Security Department to look up a possibly suspicious individual…"

"Alright. Name?"

"Inosuke Yadeo."

"Good. Do you think it's related to Anaya or Opoulos?"

"No. But he reeked of possibly being a _shotacon_. I want to make sure the guy hasn't been stirring up trouble behind the scenes and it turns out we've got another hell of a trouble loose around here." Kir Osh explained with a sigh.

"Hum. Good point. We'll look it up, then."

"Sorry when you're so busy and all but…"

"It doesn't matter. It might turn out to be a clue, even." Colonel Talos calmly replied.

"Thank you."

"Don't mind it, _Comrade_. Good-bye."

"Good-bye."

"There! Spy!"

"Huh? Who?"

"Spy? Why?"

"He was talking with a foreigner army man! And something about investigating and all!"

"Sheesh. Stop seeing so many police dramas."

"Karazawa, huh?"

"H-how do cha know who I am?"

"I've heard of you from Rainon."

A voice suddenly rang out from behind Kir Osh and he turned around to see that it was Karazawa aiming her right hand's index finger to him as if he was the culprit of something: she tried to argue why to Scherezade but she looked annoyed instead.

"The suspicious guy!"

"Being suspicious doesn't make him guilty of anything, you know."

"That fellow's got a point, cha."

"Sheesh."

"What if he's just a plain clothes policeman, huh?"

"Heck. Hadn't thought of that."

"Makes you wonder how did cha come this far in school."

"OI!"

"Settle it yourselves. Don't drag me in." Kir Osh sighed.

"Not so fast! What's with Rainon and that woman?"

"His ex-employer. That's all there's to it. He got tricked into joining the stuff, saw what it really was, and ditched them." He shrugged as he explained.

"Thought as much…" Scherezade wasn't surprised.

"Something reeks! Why did that woman call Rainon by that name that there's on that book?"

"She used to call him that in the past."

"See? That was what I thought, too." Scherezade fumed.

"Ki~h! And now cha wanna be the detective, huh?"

"Who knows? Ask cha paranoia."

"T-this GAL!"

"Charmed."

Kir Osh rolled his eyes and quickly ran off leaving those 2 to fight each other: he suddenly frowned and brought the right hand to his chin as if he'd gotten a sudden idea.

_Wait… Spy… Undercover spy… Sleeper… Enters a nation legally, gets a legal job, and, with time, might even earn citizenship… Could that mean that Anaya and Izono are hiding in some job using another ID? But we did look up several companies' databases and there were no recent additions or sometimes there were a lot if they have prefectural branch offices: maybe we needn't look at the corporate world… Not clubs… Somewhere else… Cleansing staff? Nah. I don't think such a prideful woman would allow herself to steep so low. I've got the hunch we're overlooking something, somewhere. I better do some research and tell the Committee and wait for results: I don't want to stress Boss with another front. Speaking of fronts, apart from some hit 'n run overseas… Those guys have been pretty quiet… Ran out of ideas? Or are they plotting something deadlier this time around?_

"BAKA!"

"YOURSELF!"

_Instead of yelling to each other how about you contribute somehow? I'm sure I'm on the right track… I'll find you, you rascals! I promise you!_


	14. Chapter 14: Of houses

**Chapter 14: Of houses**

07:14 AM (Honolulu Time), Wednesday December the 6th…

"… Good news, Twilight – sama. I found out in the alien databases after translating them that Duo's Crest can serve as biometric password."

"Oh yeah? How funny that I've never noticed despite having had them for years… Can you figure out how to see that biometric data?"

"I think so. Allow me to try."

"Fine. Give it a try, Zoan Gate Man."

"Roger."

"Biometric? Couldn't we turn that into a business? Biometric security is on the rise… And a lot of corporations would love to sell this "exclusive private security key"… Maybe they could link it to credit cards or something like that as well."

"Ah! My lady. It is a good idea yet… It's too easy to copy."

"For someone like you. But I don't think just anyone would realize it can be so easily copied."

"Now that you mention it…"

Zoan Gate Man had been reporting to Twilight as he sat in a revolving chair behind a desk in a windowless room somewhere that only had a desk lamp as lighting: his usual laptop was set atop the desk and Anaya was leaning over the back of the chair (she kept on sporting that armor of some days ago): she looked interested while Twilight seemed to be thinking of the possibilities as he rubbed his chin with the right hand: Anaya began to snicker as she pictured the profits of that idea.

"This is Freeze Man. No abnormalities. Over."

"Cloud Man reporting… No abnormalities. Over."

"Swallow Man… No abnormalities. Over."

"Hum! Here is Yamato Man… No abnormalities. Over."

"Cosmo Man: on the scene… No abnormalities. Over."

"Good. Return to the central section and shift the passwords." Twilight calmly ordered.

"Roger."

"My lady. The morning tea." Izono called out from outside the room.

"Open it up." She ordered Twilight.

"Roger."

He pressed a button underneath the desk's outer edge and an unseen door opened: Izono (wearing butler clothes) stepped in while carrying a tray with a teapot and a teacup plus some cookies: he placed it atop the desk since Twilight withdrew his laptop to hold it up: he stood up and bowed as Anaya nodded and sat down in the chair.

"You can leave, Marco. Good job."

"My lady." He bowed as well.

He calmly left the room while Anaya sipped some of the tea.

"Earl Green is good. As usual." She muttered.

"Twilight – sama? Success. I've found the directory where the DNA data is stored at… Complete data, indeed…" Zoan Gate Man reported back.

"Oho. Let's see. Miss Yuriko… Colonel Barrel… Dark Miyabi… Charlie Airstar… Miss Magnets… The spoiled kid…"

"Ahem, ahem." Anaya complained.

"I mean… Ijuuin Junior, Laika, Miss Sakurai, Miss Jasmine… Rokushakudama Nenji… Princess Pride… Dingo… Hikari Netto…"

"I grew bored of the nickname mania. Just call them by their names and that's it. Get it? This is an order." She glared at him.

"Roger." He quickly replied.

"What we're pending, though… Is finding a way to create new ones."

"One should think there would be a record about that if it was something they used in their daily lives…" Twilight muttered.

"Hum? Please excuse me… Ah! I found what seems to be the beginning of a file about it but it's only 10% translated. I'll need some time to fully translate it." He reported.

"Good. Focus on that."

"Roger that. To work, Legion 64!"

"Metto~!"

"I see. You use them as additional translators?" Anaya guessed.

"Correct, my lady."

"What about Bapgei? Nobody's located him again, I take it?"

"I did search his clothes the day I rescued him and there was no transmitter or anything. He was conscious the whole time so they couldn't have injected him anything without him knowing. I guess that they already knew where our hiding place was at by then and thus that's why they didn't bother to bug him." Twilight grumbled.

"Hum. I see. By the way. Regarding my previous order…"

"Yes, my lady?"

"Instead of saying "the leech" say Solidus and that's it. Understood?" She ordered him.

"Understood."

"Hmmm… I'm starting to get an idea." Anaya snickered.

"Is that so?"

"Tell your men to be ready for a sortie."

"Roger."

"Don't forget to make it look like they departed from Melbourne for their target. We need to make them believe we're there."

"I understand, my lady."

"By the way… Did Opoulos say something?"

"He's taken refuge in Athens using some connections. He's stirring up ruckuses there and there to keep the local authorities busy and unable to help the "Committee"… And with their limited staff there's a limit to what they can do in the terrain sans "official" permits." Twilight explained with a grin.

"Good, good. As expected of Opoulos. The guy knows the stuff. We should take some lessons from the guy, for real."

"Indeed, my lady. Mr. Opoulos is an excellent ally."

"Heh! Sometimes the Goddess of Luck smiles on me. One day I'm gonna turn the Golden Goddesses into the Pink Goddesses. Nyah, hah, hah, hah, hah!" She suddenly laughed.

"I… see." He found it lame.

"Oh yeah! I've got another idea!"

"Yes, my lady?"

"Become Twin Light! Nyah, hah, hah, hah!"

"Sounds like a pun Vincent would do…" He sighed and looked elsewhere, defeated.

"By the way! How about you turn Gorilla Man into an IQ 180 genius and have the guy revive King Kong? Nyah, hah, hah!"

"M-my lady…!" He groaned.

"I feel inspired! They should invent a Goddess of Inspiration!"

"M-maybe so. Oh man." He sighed.

"What. Too heavy for the kiddies? Kiddies go broom! Leave the dancing floor to the real though gals! Nyah, hah, hah!"

"M-my lady… I give up." He sighed.

He walked out of the room laptop on his left hand while Anaya kept on laughing aloud and banging the table out of unstoppable laughter: she then looked up and giggled.

"Twilight, Twilight… Cha still too soft… Cloud Man!"

"Yes! Here I am, my lady!" Cloud Man materialized and saluted.

"Tell me something."

"Yes, my lady?"

"Are you a man or a mutant?" She grinned.

"Huh… I should be a Net Navi in the shape of man, no? My name is Cloud _Man_, my lady…" He slowly replied, unsure.

"Hum! A philosophical question indeed!"

"E-excuse me?" He didn't get the point.

"Tell Vincent to send evil, blessed and repulsive packages to those heretics out there! They'll end up meeting Satan's second nephew! And in the cauldrons along with Calderón!" She laughed again.

"That of "heretics" is SO stupid… Vincent… Someone who's against the revolution is a counter-revolutionary… Heretics are those who challenge religious beliefs, man…! Ever read a dictionary…? And always using late Reverend Matías' name…! The guy was the source of Vincent's lame humor to begin with…" Cloud Man began to mutter under his breath with obvious frustration and annoyance, for once.

"Tell the legion that they're promoted to vice-legion! Heh!"

"… Yes, my lady…" He sighed and dematerialized.

"And soon… Some "houses" will shake and rumble and crumble! Did ya hear that, Marco~?"

"I did, my lady, but I fail to see the point. My lady." He drily replied.

"Heh! Dry Man returns from the past! Alright then… It's about time for the show… _It's show time_! And surprise, surprise… _Here we go_~! Heh!"

18:39 PM (London Time)…

"… But I insist. The government is moving according to the interests of the continent… We should prove we're not part of the continent!"

"Times have changed, my fellow."

"You needn't tell me."

"And with this new crisis… I hope Cameron, our top man, wins the next year elections. We'll do things right!"

"Were it so easy, sonny, were it so easy."

"Brown is too soft."

"It's very easy to criticize when you're not part of the government, my fellow Commons."

"Hmpf!"

Some members of the London Parliament's House of Commons from both the ruling party and the opposition were having discussions after a session in the corridors: some opposition members were critizing the current government and one of their members walked past them while leaving them a message: one of the opposition members fumed.

"What bothersome hypocrisy… How about we shatter it to pieces and start anew?" A familiar voice asked with some irony.

"Who…?"

TCHAC!

"Uwah! A k-k-knife~!"

"What!"

A knife suddenly flew past the head of one of the opposition members and over his right shoulder to hit a nearby wall: the "Talon" suddenly dropped from the ceiling and drew two short blades.

"Get out." He ordered through a voice distorter.

"Uwa~h! Security! A terrorist!"

"What!"

"Hmpf. Come, bobby. Let's see what stuff you're made of."

"Who the hell? Call for reinforcements! This is no ordinary man!"

"Neo Gospel."

"The terrorist org!"

"No way! They've decided to hit the Parliament?"

"Indeed. Time to show those hypocrites what fear means…"

"What do we do, Sergeant?"

"I'm not sure, for once."

"Hmpf. While you go through the bureaucracy… I'm going to shave some heads…"

The "Talon" jumped into the ceiling and attached there using some special suction pads: he began to move deeper inside across the ceiling just as a SWAT team ran in and pursued him while having their shields ready to block any knife-throwing: a chuckle rang out and Cloud Man suddenly materialized there.

"My bad, my chums. Dead end."

"Careful! That's a Darkloid!" A captain warned.

"What do we do, sir?"

"We're no match."

"Hmpf! So you had to stir up trouble in our pal's home, huh?"

"Lucky Luke! About time. The public was starting to get impatient."

Lander showed up behind Cloud Man while having two short blades on his hands as weapons: Cloud Man turned around, amused, and faced him while the squad withdrew.

"But this corridor is a bit too narrow… Let's go have fun in the homepage, shall we? _Laugh and grow fat_!"

He dematerialized so Lander cursed and did the same: the squad took the chance to head further in and found that the doors of one room had been stuck close with a knife from the outside: cries of panic rang out inside so the squad formed two rows to leave a central corridor for evacuation: they pulled open the doors after removing the knife and several members of the House of Lords rushed out: they all had cuts on their clothes or wigs: the squad rushed in to find the "Talon" wildly jumping around and brandishing the blades: two policemen charged in from the sides and caught the "Talon" on the middle but he merely shrugged and slid upwards to then use his feet to push them backwards and form enough space to jump off and resume running wild.

"Mwah, hah, hah! Not so fast, College of Davidson!" Swallow Man's voice rang out from a nearby room.

"Shit. Not you again." Davis grumbled.

"Homepage!"

"Wait!"

"Heh, heh, heh. Come, decaying pawn. I shall turn you lowlife into spatial dust!" Cosmo Man taunted someone.

"Mugro~h!" Balrog grumbled.

"Heh, heh, heh… Foolish _ronin_! Such tactics won't work on me!" Yamato Man taunted next.

"That's to be seen, man." Destruction Man fumed.

"Hmpf. So you're fighting me, huh?" Axe Man wasn't impressed.

"Indeed! I'll freeze you from the insides!" Freeze Man chuckled.

"You won't be able to keep up with my speed!" Zoan Gate Man boasted to someone.

"I don't need to." Annihilator Man drily replied.

"What's going on, Captain?" A member asked.

"It'd seem some Net Saviors and collaborators have come to help only to find each of the Neo Gospel Darkloids forcing them to fight them. And that means that we'll surely have to deal with this madman by ourselves, somehow." The Captain grumbled.

"Dang."

"Hmpf. You will try…"

The "Talon" ran off in another direction and the squad gave chase until it entered the now empty room where the House of Commons held their sessions: they began to jump around using the seats to do so and throw knives that ended up stabbed into the shields of the squad: there was a familiar grumble of annoyance and the "Talon" gasped as Omega showed up behind it with a pretty much annoyed face.

"About time you showed up, clown! I was fed up with having to beat pawns." He grumbled.

"Hmpf. I got a gift."

"What "gift"?"

"I think it's better for us to pull out, Captain."

"You're right. It could get ugly. Pull out!"

"Roger, sir!"

The squad quickly pulled out and other squads closed the doors to make sure the fighting didn't spread past the room: the "Talon" suddenly jumped into the air and Omega followed.

"_Mutually attracting magnetisms burst open… Desire it all wish it all… Deprive… Rise… Grand arms… _Super Heavy Magnetic Exploding Star!"

"Shit."

The "Talon" formed that sucking sphere of expanding energy and Omega quickly dived into the ground using his saber.

"Die."

"What!"

The mass reached its critical limit and imploded causing a shockwave across the middle of the room: the shockwave hit Omega when it was still strong and sent him flying across the room, hitting the stone wall right of the doors: the "Talon" rushed towards him but Omega growled and quickly drew his gun: he began to shoot plasma rounds at wild so the "Talon" used a Dream Aura to shield himself while the rounds bounced off and partly melted the spots on the walls where they impacted: Omega recovered and rushed for the "Talon": he swung the saber and shattered the Dream Aura just as 10 knives flew for him and hit his shoulders, upper chest, elbows, hips and the knees: Omega's body seemed to get stuck but he merely closed his eyes and he suddenly materialized behind the "Talon" who had to dodge Omega's attempt to hit his head with the saber's hilt.

"Same trick doesn't work twice! Bludger!" He growled.

"Damn it." He cursed.

Omega suddenly noticed something and quickly spun around to intercept a bullet that was heading for his head from behind using the saber on his right hand while he drew the gun with the left one and aimed it at the "Talon" who didn't dare move with the gun being so close: it turned out Anaya (with her armor and having a Navi helmet and mouth-guard) was standing atop a Dash Condor and holding a PSG – 1 sniper rifle on her hands: she cursed under her breath.

"So the bitch in purple armor comes out, huh?" Omega taunted.

"Sheesh." She complained under her breath.

"If you try that again then I'm going to get annoyed for real."

"Oh yeah? And what'll cha do? Break his bones?"

"Guh." He growled as if he realized she had a point.

"Phew." The "Talon" sighed in relief.

"Don't be so impatient."

"Damn it."

Blood Shadow suddenly showed up behind the "Talon" and pressed his shotgun barrels against his back to warn him not to move: Anaya was cursing under her breath because the situation was apparently escaping her control.

"Commander Omega." Blood Shadow whispered.

"Gotcha."

Omega jumped into the air and landed further in to aim his gun at the wall opposite that where Anaya was at: he shot a round that missed in purpose and Izono was forced to reveal his position there having an RPG-7 on his hands loaded.

"Don't move."

"Shit." He lost his composure, for once.

"_The flashing lightning is the guidance of counter-attacking… The roaring thunder-roar is the bloody proof… The piercing thunder is the reason of the Universe…_ Voltic Chain!"

"What!"

That "Voltic Chain" attacked happened but this time around the chains coiled around Omega and Blood Shadow before electrocuting them: they growled and collapsed once they dissolved so the "Talon" and the villains ran off towards another door that Twilight had opened: Sigma, however, appeared there and began to chase them.

"Shit! The brute! Twilight! Do something!"

"Zoan Gate Man! C Plan!"

"Roger! Come out! "Sealed One: Exodia"!"

The "Exodia" monster (at a lesser scale to fit in the corridor) came out of the Remote Gate and stood on Sigma's way.

"Gruoh!"

It suddenly raised the right foot and landed it back with force on the ground followed by the left one.

"What? _Sumo_ Exodia? How lame. Got not time for crap! You want piercing thunder? I'll give ya piercing blade! EAT THIS!"

Sigma thrust his blade forward and it pierced through Exodia: he let go of the blade and began to hit Exodia with the fists and the feet to stun it and, at the same time, damage it using a mass of plasma surrounding them that easily broke away the armor: Exodia's eyes glowed red but Sigma merely snapped his right hand's index and middle finger to make it "drop" into the ground all of a sudden: he resumed the chase but found the "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" waiting for him: Sigma seemed to get a twitch over his right eye.

"Gonna take forever…! Your turn! Blues! Search Man!"

"Roger!"

Blues and Search Man materialized behind the dragon and ran into a hall just in time to see a large hole in the wall caused by one Landmaster tank: three "Wolfen" units were present as well and the villains had already jumped into their cockpits: they ignited and shot away crossing the Thames next to the now cut-off Westminster Bridge: the Landmaster raced away and both nodded to each, deciding to chase it due to its slower speed: it began to roll across the Westminster Bridge once it blew up the barricade at the start of it: wild shooting in all directions ensued while the "Wolfen" ships used their maneuver capability to dodge attacks from the Royal Air Force airships and choppers.

"Shit. It looks like a war has begun!" Blues cursed.

"This will have repercussions. Serious repercussions." Search Man grumbled next.

"Sonic Boom!"

"Scope Gun!"

"Got no time for small fry! Play with these!" Twilight roared.

Two "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" formed in front of each of them and they quickly shot their "Burst Stream of Destruction" at their feet, opening holes in the bridge's structure: both cursed and focused on fighting them as the Landmaster kept on advancing.

"Super Vulcan!"

"Needle Cannon! Random Shoot!"

Prism Man and Needle Man appeared in the bridge next and attacked the Landmaster, inflicting some damage to it: it quickly used the hover function to fly over them and then dropped down a bit ahead: both kept on attacking the rear but, suddenly, the "Summoned Demon" showed up and attacked with an electrical arc: both dodged.

"Shah, shah, shah! I'll take on this guy! Ya go on ahead!"

"I owe you one."

Prism Man rushed forward and quickly jumped atop the Landmaster: he combined his spears to form a one-piece spear and began to pierce the tank with it: the tank frizzled and malfunctioned and it suddenly exploded yet Twilight wasn't inside by then: he quickly turned around to block Twilight, who'd tried to stab his swords into his back: Twilight hissed and jumped back some distance.

"_Lightning that vibrates and rinses like the heavens… Smash all that you meet across your path… _Lightning Sphere!"

He formed those spheres of electricity around him and they hit Prism Man, momentarily stunning him: he lowered the guard and received several shots from Needle Man that momentarily stunned him as well.

"Needle Man! You rascal! I freed you from jail two and a half years ago and this is how you reward me?"

"Shah, shah, shah! Speak for yourself! You told me and Yuriko to go challenge Rock Man knowing in advance we'd lose and be captured: ya wanted to get rid of us to begin with! Hmpf!"

"Sheesh." He grumbled.

"Giga Cannon!"

"Shit! That wasn't enough to beat that fool?"

Twilight dodged the attack by Prism Man and grumbled as both faced him but then the Wolfen wings began to bombard the area: Twilight jumped and gripped into Anaya's Wolfen right wing while both Navis collapsed from the bombing damage.

"Shit. One after the other!" Twilight cursed.

"Damn. Looks like we underestimated their mobilization capability and they've all come for us." Anaya cursed.

"Freeze Man! What's the status?"

"No good, sir. We had to pull out but we managed to inflict some damage: Annihilator Man and those annihilating beams are too dangerous and I didn't want to risk any man's deletion. At least we detonated our _bunshins_ so that did some damage to the area. I'm quite confident that scale of damage will make them shiver in the days to come." Freeze Man reported to him.

"Fine. Did you shake them off?"

"So it'd seem. We'll be hiding in different nations for some hours until things cool down and then use our disguises to get to the HQ."

"Alright. Try going to Brazil and then materialize to hide inside of the Amazon jungle: they don't have enough manpower to search through the whole of it. And they won't expect it, anyway."

"Roger."

"Master! I'm fighting Isaac: the rascal's come to mock us and brought an Arwing along!"

"Wha~t?

"I suspect Vadous!"

"_Kyoudai_~!"

In effect: Bapgei's Wolfen was engaged in an aerial duel with an Arwing piloted by Isaac: Twilight gasped and turned around when he heard another one's hum and this one was piloted by Rock Man: yet another was piloted by Shadow Man.

"Shit. I'll draw their attention! My lady! Mr. Secretary! Head to the D Point and use the portal to escape!" He told them.

"Alright! You heard it, Marco! Let's go!"

"Roger!"

Both Wolfen ignited their main engine and shot away at quick speed while Twilight materialized a squad of 10 Wolfen: 9 of them were piloted by standard Navis while he entered the pilot of the last one: he headed for Rock Man's Arwing and began to exchange shots with him: Rock Man countered and the aerial battle continued.

"Bapgei! Use your jet: run for Isaac, he'll dodge and you drop a bomb. Then go assist Lady IQ and Mr. Secretary! I'll get back to the HQ through another route myself." He ordered.

"Roger."

Bapgei did as told: he sped up at max speed for Isaac, who gasped and quickly had to dive below the Wolfen to dodge yet a bomb was dropped from the Wolfen's underside: it hit the engines of the Arwing and he lost control as he ejected and the Arwing crash-landed in the midst of Westminister Bridge: Isaac growled as the Wolfen escaped while Twilight focused his attention on Rock Man and Shadow Man.

"All units: fly towards them and then self-destruct! Hah!"

The units did so and, since the other 2 didn't see it coming, they were knocked out of the aerial fight: Twilight laughed under his breath and also flew away while Rock Man looked from the bridge and clenched his fists in frustration: his irises glowed with determination.

_Twilight... I'll bring you down with my own hands! Just you wait…!_


	15. Chapter 15: Season break

**Chapter 15: Season break**

09:49 AM (Japan Time), Friday December the 8th…

"… So… They found the ships in the East End of London?"

"Yeah. And under that warehouse there had been a portal machine but it'd blown up into small pieces. Impossible to retrieve anything."

"Huff. The news is still going over that."

"What were you expecting? It's a terrorist attack on the heart of London, no less."

"At least no – one is complaining about the Net Saviors coming without asking for permit."

"No. What they're complaining is why the King Land Net Saviors were all gathered in North Ireland. Turns out that there was a distraction there that made it look like it was IRA fanatics preparing an attack…"

"Sheesh. Why not send some scouts to check it out and not the WHOLE of them?"

Omega had come to report to Vadous on the Subspace HQ's command bridge: he looked like he'd already healed from the other day's wounds and was collected while Vadous sighed.

"Yeah. Their new tactic seems to be to rescue that that they tried to do two and a half years ago… There's no safe place."

"At least this won't lead to a pointless war."

"I know. The Net Police sent detailed reports to both MI5 and MI6 so they know it's just a small bunch of nomad terrorists acting on their own and having no homeland…"

"Fine. As long as we can keep them reassured to some level… What's the morale onboard?"

"Well. Trill only knows that we fought them and they ran but only said he's rooting for us. Iris didn't seem to mind it too much."

"What about Lartes and Kir Osh?"

"Lartes says you mustn't try to loophole the rest."

"I know." He rolled his eyes.

"Kir Osh seems to be focusing his attention on something but I dunno the what. It'd seem he's got something personal going on. Daratsu and Kuro Kaze merely train and that's it."

"Kir Osh has something personal going on? How odd."

"I know."

"Anyway. Did the "Committee" report something?"

"They tried to infiltrate an agent into Opoulos' business but Opoulos apparently saw it coming because he told him to come back "tomorrow" and when he did so the warehouse had been blown up and there was no trace of them." Omega sighed.

"Well. Opoulos is a pro unlike those: the man was in the FBI for a lot of years as well." Vadous sighed as well.

"I know. For the time being we haven't found Bapgei again despite monitoring of his aunt's farm. We'll have to wait for some hint: and I suspect that Bapgei will be employing disguises from now on."

"Disguises…? Wait. Vincent?"

"No way. The guy's totally lost it ages ago, anyway."

"Alright. Then they've got help from another specialist somewhere."

"So it'd seem. Let's hope it's not Decoy Octopus."

"Geh. The guy was creepy: drinking others' blood? Didn't he fear getting a virus or an infection? And what about the antibodies? Thankfully no – one's that mad in the world." Vadous grumbled.

"I know, Boss, I know."

"Fine. Is there anything else?"

"Not really. Blood and Sigma have reported nothing odd save for that newcomer student annoying them with paranoia-induced questions: she sees spies everywhere."

"I see. She's seen too many soap operas."

"Got news. I can't believe we were SO blind." Kir Osh rushed in.

"What happened?" Both gasped.

"I found out where those 2 had been hiding until recently… Right under our noses, indeed!"

"What do you mean?"

"Ayanokouji."

"Ayanokouji~?" Vadous frowned.

"A few days ago, before that of London, I had the hunch that they were hiding somewhere that wasn't the corporate world. Then I thought of freelancers or small shops. Or, while I was it, a rich family's staff of maids and servants… I asked the senior butler of the family and told me they'd recently hired a new maid and a gardener… And both went missing one day before that of London." He exposed.

"By all the…! They were hiding amongst the Ayanokouji mansion staff all this time?" Omega cursed.

"Anaya tolerated degrading herself, a Queen, to a mere maid, huh? It'd seem that the bitch can do that when she gets in the mood to."

"Yeah. Right under our noses. I think she took profit of the fact that we didn't pay much attention to Ayanokouji herself given her troll behavior and all of that. And the spoiler heiress didn't notice there was new staff since she'd never bothered to count how many maids she's got. If only she'd noticed the sudden increase in staff…!" Kir Osh fumed.

"Hmpf… Spoiled brats… The world would be better sans them." Omega fumed.

"Really…" Vadous sighed in defeat.

"I showed photos of their disguises around and it turns out they'd become regular Maha Ichiban's customers, too! They always timed it so that they wouldn't meet Wily and the other 2, though. In there they appealed as being company employees."

"By all the… And none of those 4 noticed?"

"Iroaya only though they were having an affair."

"Iroaya…! Could've tried thinking of something else!"

"I know."

"Anyway. We can't lower the guard and you know that."

"Of course. The "Committee" is keeping guard but it's hard to predict where they'll come from."

"Good point. We'll have to put the Net Saviors in alert and have them train to be fresh and ready. We all need to review our own tactics to see what should be improvised."

"First thing we need to do is find ways to counter or dodge those "Special Skills": they're super cheats. Worse than cheat codes." Omega warned them.

"Yeah. That should be number one priority."

"By the way, Kir Osh. What was that that was bothering you?"

"Well. I happened to stumble upon my step-brother and I asked Colonel Talos to look up the guy to make sure he's not become a danger. It doesn't seem to, fortunately enough. The guy's a _shotacon_, yeah, but contents with trying to help young guys to "come out of the closet", that is, to admit that they like another guy. And then try to make sure they understand each other and things go smoothly."

"Ah. If it's just that…"

"Yeah. No danger at all. Clean history, too."

"Good. If we can remove possible dangers…"

"…chariots of war propelled by mystic forces that…" A voice rang out from below them.

"Dragon! Kitchen! Or else… Anger God!" Vadous grumbled.

Hurried footsteps rushed away while everyone sighed.

"That guy won't change."

"At least he does eatable stuff." Kir Osh muttered.

"You know how long it's taken to convince the guy to do so." Vadous reminded him.

"True…"

"I'm glad I don't need to eat." Omega drily muttered.

"No wonder." Vadous sighed.

"Oh well. Discussing about Dragon won't lead us anywhere so I'll be going back to checking on things. Oh yeah. I forgot: they found Kataka's name in a recently raided Sydney club. But she wasn't there: she's got a search and capture notification so she's gone into hiding too."

"Kataka is a pawn. She won't know too much. But it could be a lead: yet I'm sure that Anaya will just throw her away and let her rot away like she did with her summer accomplices."

"No wonder. Oh well. Back to work."

Kir Osh walked out while humming a tune: Vadous began to input commands into the console.

"Let's review security. Make sure that Michelangelo is ready to act if there's an intruder. Place some bear-traps too."

"Delighted." Omega snickered.

He dematerialized while Vadous continued issuing orders.

_Those 2 might try to hide… But no – one's perfect. They'll commit a mistake sooner or later. And then we'll find them!_

13:23 PM (Honolulu Time), Thursday December the 7th…

"… I have news, my lady. They figured out our covers we'd been using insofar but that won't lead them anywhere."

"Hum. It was a matter of time, anyway."

"Opoulos has managed to shake off several desperate attempts to infiltrate spies on his business as well. But he wants to move back here because moving up and down so much is not doing well for his health to begin with."

"Can't be helped… He's done a great job. And, besides, this is the guy's place to begin with. He's lent it to us."

"I understand, my lady. He says he'll come tomorrow once he's finished setting up the means to deliver orders to his new subordinates."

"Good."

Anaya and Izono were talking inside of that small office room as Anaya handled something using the PC: she didn't look too surprised at the news and shrugged.

"We owe him big. It's the least we could do to repay it."

"I never questioned that, my lady."

"You didn't question that Millionaire had big melons?"

"My lady…" He sighed.

"Kidding. The gal has an odd atmosphere, really. And she's been providing me with good business info… In exchange for favors… Small things: go bust some annoying competency or something like that… We did bust that Drill Man guy who broke into the "Survival Seven" game last year's summer when Isaac was taking part." She muttered.

"Speaking of which… It'd seem they had a backup: I've heard reports of that Drill Man stealing corporate secrets there and there. And it'd seem they're then auctioned in secret auctions… But none of our secret technology has been compromised, my lady."

"First-timer." She admitted.

"I apologize. I thought it held no importance for us."

"Well. It really doesn't but you never know."

"My lady? May I come in?" Twilight asked from the outside.

"Come in, Liquid – chan." She snickered.

"My lady…!" He sighed in defeat.

The door opened and he stepped in: he cleared his throat and tried to keep a firm face but wasn't really managing: Anaya further grinned while Izono rolled his eyes.

"So?"

"I brought Bapgei to resume his training."

"Good. Remember to make sure his comings and goings aren't traced."

"I understand, my lady."

"Ah yeah. Opoulos is coming to move here tomorrow. Make sure to greet him if we're not here by the time he comes. He'll surely use his old office as well. Put some Navis in charge of cleansing it. Turn on power for that sector too." She ordered.

"Understood."

"Use automated Navis, I meant. Not the Darkloids."

"Roger."

"By the way… Bring me a Geror Cocktail."

"Do excuse me?" He looked incredulous.

"Oh that face!" She laughed.

"My lady…!" He hung his head down, ashamed.

"Shame Guy dropped by with the 5:55 PM Alaska express! Let's begin with some greetings! Hey, Marco! Call Greetin' All Girl!"

"M-my lady…" He groaned and rolled his eyes.

"Is there some problem?" Freeze Man asked from the corridor.

"Don't worry, Popsicle Man. I'm in charge… of the comedy show."

"… Yes, my lady…" He replied with some defeatism.

"I'm going to resume the training, my lady." Twilight cleared his throat.

"And the dancing?" She giggled.

"… Yes, my lady…" He muttered with obvious defeat.

He walked out and met with Freeze Man on the corridor: both sighed and seemed to feel the same.

"IQ – sama IS a genius but Her Grace's moods…" Twilight sighed.

"I know, sir. I thought Vincent was annoying but now he looks pale compared to Her Grace. No offense, sir."

"Don't worry about that. It's Her Grace's defining trait, anyway."

They walked away and exited into a wide room where everyone was training against automated Navis: Bapgei, with his "Talon" disguise on, was parrying with a Navi holding a scimitar: Yamato Man seemed to be having a _kendo_ duel, Cloud Man was trying to use clouds shooting thunder balls to trap the opponent, Cosmo Man was testing the speed of his fists and arms by dodging and countering the Navi's attacks: Swallow Man was trying to outrun another Navi chasing him as well: Zoan Gate Man was performing some flips and jumps to dodge an agile Navi as well.

"Rest." He ordered.

The training Navis halted and the group stopped: Bapgei stretched and took out his mask to freshen.

"I see you're all making good progress… Excellent. By the way, Bapgei, don't overdo it either. Even if the nanomachines help you optimize your body there's a limit to what they can do."

"Alright, Master."

"By the way… Cloud Man. Do they suspect Vincent?"

"I posed as the guy by jacking the phone and began to copy all that nonsense. So I gave them impression the guy's as mad as ever. As proof of it, I overheard Lander discussing with Davis about Vincent but concluding the guy's unrelated and has lost it long ago." He explained.

"Good, good. I approve of that. Keep it up."

"Your will." He bowed.

"Hmpf." Swallow Man grumbled.

"Do you have a problem with it, Swallow Man?" Twilight questioned with a hint of annoyance.

"N-no, sir." He gulped and stood firm.

"Ah! By the way. Yamato Man. Your habit of calling your opponents "ronin" doesn't really make sense. I'm your Lord. But not a feudal lord. _Samurai_ served feudal lords, you know?" He sighed.

"I apologize." He kneeled and bowed.

"Fine. As long as you don't bring it up again…"

"By your orders, sir."

"Zoan Gate Man. What about the crest stuff?"

"95% of the file about it is translated: I've run some trials but we lack source material. Someone of flesh and blood into which to test it."

"Maybe I would do?" Bapgei offered.

"Yeah. That crest thing is invisible the whole time and it doesn't affect your body in any manner… Yet, if memory serves… It could increase the Synchronism… But I think that's an add-on Duo came up with because the rascal wanted to see more Cross Fusions…" Twilight rubbed his chin with the right hand.

"Understood. We'll test a prototype in the days to come. Maybe if we used something like a hand scanner…"

"We could code it into his right hand in an easier manner… It's worth a try, anyway."

"And if that succeeded then we could sell it?" Freeze Man asked.

"Yeah. To especially paranoid types… They would love it: a personal key. Too bad they won't realize it _can_ be copied. Heh." He snickered.

"I see. And we could use that data to access confidential data or something like that in their place and blame them?" Bapgei looked amused at the idea.

"Yeah. We could. Do you have an idea on mind?"

"Maybe if we could sell it to some army top brass and we made a copy we could access the info that guy has clearance to see?"

"Good idea as well. Heh, heh, heh. _Kyoudai_~… Aliens are gonna be your downfall…" He chuckled.

_Master's getting cocky again. Not a good sign._ Bapgei inwardly sighed and seemed to feel worried about that.

"Speaking of aliens… What do we do with the Utah guy?"

"Good point. Rushing in won't do. We need to wait for a chance to corner that rascal and bombard them with all we have. If even Forte could defeat THE Slur who was way stronger than this rascal then we should be able to do so as well. Mwah, hah, hah." He suddenly laughed.

_Got a bad feeling about this… I feel like it's gonna end up bad again and he'll spend a week raging over it… _Bapgei rolled his eyes.

"That's it, that's it… We need to come up with a jynx!"

"HUH?" All of the Darkloids wondered.

"Something that brings bad luck…!" Bapgei whispered to Freeze Man.

"It sounds so illogical…" He complained.

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah… Yeah… Get ready, rascal… I'm gonna have you turn as ugly as Snape~! Nyah, hah, hah! Mwah, hah, hah! Hrah, hah, hah!"

18:29 PM (Japan Time), Friday December the 8th…

"… Meijin – san. The report."

"Thanks, Obihiro – kun."

"It's nothing, sir."

"Hi there. Is everything OK?"

"Ah. Hikari – hakase. Yes, it is."

"Meijin – sama: a visitor by the name of Colonel – sama has come."

"Ah! Colonel. Let him in. I expected him."

"Roger, sir."

"I see you've expanded security. Good."

Obihiro brought Meijin a report: Yuuichirou came in and a Navi told Meijin Colonel had come: he appeared on Meijin's PC and looked satisfied with the upgrades to security.

"Hi there! The Snatcher Duo has come! Analog Snatcher Leo and Cyber Snatcher Ryuuto! Let's go broom Orre!"

"Sheesh. Charles. That joke's running old, you know."

"On the contrary, my dear Martin. It's walking new."

Charles and Martin walked in next: Charles was kidding while Martin rolled his eyes as if he didn't like the joke anymore.

"Any news?" Colonel asked Lander and Davis.

"No. Save that the Interpol has begun to search every nook and cranny, convinced, somehow, that they're in Istanbul. I think they're riding on misinformation but there must be pressure from London." Lander sighed as he explained.

"And then they call themselves _Inter_pol." Davis ironically muttered.

"I get the irony." Colonel sighed.

"What is the matter?"

"Xon' Edos… When will you announce your comings? We upgraded security for something, you know?"

"Ah. I apologize. I did not think of it. I shall do it right next time."

"Fine. As long as you get the point…"

Xon' Edos came in, unannounced, and Meijin sighed since now it looked like the security systems were useless: Xon' Edos realized that and looked a bit guilty.

"Whatever. The matter is that investigations on Twilight's whereabouts aren't going well: they ride on misinformation."

"What is that?"

"Fake data designed to confuse the enemy…" Colonel replied.

"I see. So they do not realize it is fake data?"

"Correct. That's the problem. They're so desperate for data that they catch first thing they find without questioning the source or its authenticity."

"Hmpf. Fools. Reminds me of the Commerce Guild…"

"In what aspect?"

"That they once rushed to build a mine in Colony 3 once they heard there was a new material that could be mined there… Only to then find out they had been wrong and it was mere rock." He told them.

"So even them committed mistakes?" Davis looked surprised.

"No wonder. Seeing in what it ended…" Yuuichirou muttered.

"Yes. The Commerce Guild became a breeding ground for fools: and that infected the Ruling Council next. You know what happened next."

"We must make sure to never commit such a mistake."

"Indeed! Fortunately, no – one seems to think like that in this age."

"Did you manage to find a way to deal with nuclear residues?"

"Yes. But I am not privy to details on that part. I know that the residue problem persisted for about 1 century before they could move into nuclear fusion… And, eventually, to cosmic energy…" Xon' Edos admitted with a shrug.

"1 century…! And it's been 55 years since the world's first nuclear power plant was opened in the Soviet Union…! At this rate we've got another 45 years of struggling ahead of us… Or more!" Meijin muttered.

"Time will tell." Yuuichirou calmly replied.

"Let's hope so." Obihiro shrugged.

"Did you call for me?" Dr. Regal suddenly walked in.

"Huh? No, I didn't."

"I didn't either." Obihiro replied.

"I'm sure I didn't… Or did I?" Yuuichirou frowned.

"No. The mail I got was from Meijin."

"What does it say?"

"… "I have news regarding a flaw in the Dimensional Converters output system: please come ASAP"…" Laser Man quoted.

"Odd. Wasn't that still under testing? Obihiro – kun."

"Yes, sir… How odd. The report I handed out was about another matter altogether." Obihiro frowned.

"It isn't Shadow Man." Davis quickly muttered.

"Not me." Lander defended himself.

"Cloud Man or Swallow Man?"

"Hmmm… The level seems to imply someone with far more brains."

"Freeze Man?" Martin speculated.

"Yeah. The rascal indeed: I found the guy freezing buildings from the base to the top in the Anchorage Internet City and he hinted at something going on here: fearing the worst I raced here but… It turns out the rascal laughed at me." Zero explained as he stepped in, grumbling.

"Oh boy." Obihiro sighed.

"Shadow Man has come in." A security Navi reported.

"Huff. I stumbled upon that horde again… 18 of them! In Kobe." He explained with a sigh.

"So! They sure want to prove they're not going to stay quiet so easily, huh?" Charles guessed.

"So it'd seem." Dark Miyabi shrugged.

"Well! Let's not let those guys bust our morale. We need to stay in top shape and pretend we don't give a crap for them."

"In short: ignore their attempts to undermine morale." Colonel summed up for Xon' Edos.

"I agree. I have received permission to get involved. My superiors read my yearly report and decided Neo Gospel has become too much of a threat in only one year. So I can get involved but always hiding my "alien" origins and pretending I am a prototype of a new-gen Navi." Xon' Edos told Colonel as he nodded in agreement.

"Excellent."

"So if anyone asks you can tell them this."

"Perfect. It'll come in handy to explain your involvement while hiding your true origins." Yuuichirou approved of it.

"How ironic… A Navi of the same civilization that built that destroyer of worlds now wants to help save a world…" Dr. Regal muttered.

"I would prefer if you did not use "guilty by association", Doctor Regal."

"Ah. Alright." He calmly replied.

"Regal… Duo is a destroyer of worlds but if you're here today it's thanks to that thing. So if you want to direct irony at someone direct it that damned behemoth." Dr. Wily warned him.

"Behemoth indeed." Yuriko grimly muttered.

"Shah, shah, shah. I saw those images. Man. I don't wanna even imagine what that thing can actually do." Needle Man muttered next.

"Morale, morale!" Charles rallied.

"Good point. Let's get back to work."

The scientists returned to their posts and the Net Saviors also left so only Zero, Colonel and Xon' Edos remained in the main room.

"I will finish installing a new security system for my craft."

"Good. Don't worry: my travels keep on being classified on the other end of the tunnel." Colonel whispered.

"There is no record, I assume?"

"None."

"Than that is good. It is a very, very delicate matter."

"I know. I don't intend to let some fools toy with the flow of history."

"Same over here…" Zero glanced at his blade.

"Well then. I shall go back. You should register me so that I can enter and exit "legally" as well." Xon' Edos reminded Zero.

"Will do that ASAP: don't be concerned."

"Excellent. Let us meet again."

"I'll go check around St. Petersburg. My Operator has a hunch and there could be some hint there. Goodbye, Zero."

"See you around, Colonel. Time to resume training as well."

_That ice rascal will soon come to my fear my blade. Come, my foe! _

18:39 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Very kind of you to let us enjoy an afternoon at your place but I feel like there's something hidden in here. Yaito – chan."

"Don't worry, Meiru – chan! Just enjoy."

"Go, Koppa! Bust 'em!"

"Go, Pit! Smash 'em!"

"Go, Sonic! Run through 'em!"

"Go, Zelda! Teach 'em!"

"Heh! So cha girlfriend is the tomboy type, Raiden – sama~?"

"My name is Nelaus. And you know it. Miss Karazawa."

"Cha gotta be a KCK spy!"

"Please be reasonable."

"Your statements lack proof."

"True, true!"

"Cha rookies stay back and watch a pro at work!"

Yaito had invited her classmates and those of the B group to her mansion's living room to have some fun: Meiru was talking with her and looked suspicious while Dekao, Netto, Saito and Aura were playing _Great Melee Smash Brothers X_ while Karazawa was uttering nonsense directed at Nelaus who was hardly impressed: Hikawa tried to reason with her, Arushi was annoyed, Eboshi backed Arushi and she instead tried to shoo them away.

"This gal…!" Scherezade was annoyed.

"Won't learn…!" Roll muttered.

"What a gal!" Felicia complained.

"Uh-oh." Glyde gulped.

"Mugro~h! My fella Future Man said: cha future is a ruin!" Balrog made up a lame joke.

"Oh come on. Destruction Man and the guy's sense of humor…!" Arushi complained.

"Desu?" Ice Man wondered.

"Guts, guts. Guts Man got a cursed grey duck, de guts."

"E~H"? Dekao was horrified.

"Mwah, hah, hah. Vincent's gift?" Sigma joked.

"How funny." Blood Shadow drily replied.

"By the way, Arushi – kun… What are your companions doing?"

"Future's surely ended the day's classes… Present… I'm not so sure: I don't know much about the guy. There's the age difference thing too. Priest – sama… He's still got some hours of class ahead of him… Oh yeah. He's improvised the coding for the Duel Arena by publishing it into a forum and allowing expert programmers to help."

"Too bad he won't give me the monopoly~…" Yaito muttered.

"Buy the game through Amazon! Mugroh, groh, groh!" Balrog laughed.

"What? Ah! The board game thing? Oh come on." She complained.

"Beware! I can see through your mask! You're red-haired!" Karazawa was still improvising something to try to impress.

"And so?" Nelaus drily asked back.

"And so…? Eh… Well…" She trailed off.

"Hmpf. Learn cha place, cha cool gal wannabe. Vermouth says cha suck at it, cha." Scherezade snickered.

"KI~H! THAT OLD GRANDMA IS UNRELATED!" She yelled as if Scherezade had brought up something she disliked.

"I wonder 'bout that. Go mop the corridor."

"TAKTBAITBNF!" She uttered something undecipherable.

"Whoa! Is that Russian?" Dekao wondered.

"No." The twins drily replied.

"Oh man."

"Ask Laika – chan." Yaito giggled.

"I'm here, you know. I'm trying to play domino with Enzan." Laika called out from a spot further in.

"E~H? Enzan's here? Why?"

"You sent me an invitation, too." Enzan calmly replied.

"I have the mail as proof." Blues told Yaito.

"Same here." Search Man added.

"Glyde~… How 'bout cha explain this?"

"P-president's orders, Yaito – sama… He wanted no discrimination, ma'am!" He replied.

"Sheesh! Daddy had to mess it up!"

"Oh yes?" He suddenly loomed over her.

"Wha! Daddy! I thought you were in Hong Kong!"

"I came back 3 days ago. You're telling me you didn't notice?"

"Eh… No." She admitted.

"If you can't notice something so easy then how are you going to handle the business when you inherit it? The president has to make important decisions and is the public face of the company: what happens to the company and to the company's employees… It rests of the president's shoulders. Don't forget that!" He told her.

"Y-yes, sir." She gulped and turned white.

"This is reality, Yaito. You're about to turn 14 next year."

"B-but the legal age is 20!"

"I know. But if you don't assimilate the concepts early and work upon them then you won't be ready by the time THE day comes. And you surely have noticed I've been reducing the amount of credit cards you can use: you can only use 3 now. I was too stupid to lend you so many years ago but now I've fixed that. Thankfully I've managed to balance those expenses by hard work."

"Very true, sir." Enzan politely backed him up.

"But, daddy… How do you explain that Enzan has been the VP of his dad's company ever since he was 10?"

"Maybe Ijuuin – sama felt like placing him in a post with responsibility and getting real experience first-hand would be the best way for him to learn how reality works like. Althought in Enzan – kun's case his teaching was way stricter. WAY STRICTER."

"I've been on my unit since I was 12 as well. My uncle wanted me to realize what discipline meant." Laika added.

"Maybe some discipline would do well to you, young Miss?" He suddenly addressed Karazawa.

"It would do WONDERS." Scherezade sighed.

"N-no, sir…" She quickly replied as she began to sweat and her teeth danced from the nerves.

She glanced around but everyone was directing annoyed glares at her, Scherezade included.

"I think that… I've got some stuff to do… S-see ya on Monday!"

She ran off at top speed and some tension seemed to leave the air to the relief of most of the group.

"Hey, Netto! Higure – san lent me a Rare Chip: it'll beat Sigma! And I'll be Akihara City Champion again!" Dekao boasted.

"Is it true? Number Man." Blood Shadow asked.

"Of course not. He just bought 10 Mini Bombs."

"Chut! Chut!" Dekao nervously scolded.

"Pyururu~…"

"I happened to be on a chat with him through the phone."

"MASU~! Shuuko – chan! Don't say anything! Masu! I can read it: thee future and thee fate! SEYA~H!"

"Huh…? A-alright…"

"MASU~! You will become the successful lead of Higureya in Shibuya! MASU~!"

"Get down to Earth. Moron." Number Man grumbled.

CRASH! THUD!

"Masu~…"

"Alright. We'll speak another day. Bye." Blood Shadow wasn't impressed.

"Shibuya? No way." Netto rolled his eyes.

"Too many _clichés_." Saito muttered.

"Undoubtedly." Aura muttered next.

"Well. There might be hard times ahead of us, young generation, but one must never lose hope. Hope is what moves us forward." Yaito's dad addressed the group.

They all nodded in agreement and the Navis followed suit: several of them began to smile (save for Guts Man who didn't get what was going on).

"I think that the upcoming year 2010 will be a new year that will bring us closer to the end of this pointless violence. So. Let's stay united, let's remain hopeful, and let's work together… For a bright tomorrow."

They all clapped and looked determined: a bright tomorrow lay ahead…

**THE END**


End file.
